THE 
iGE-OF-THE-SEVEN 

SUITORS 


MEREDITH  NICHOLSON 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNSA 
AT   LOS  ANGELES 


The  Siege  of  the  Seven  Suitors 


HEZEKIAH" 


The  Siege  of 
The  Seven  Suitors 


BY 

MEREDITH    NICHOLSON 

AUTHOR  OP  "  THE  HOUSE  OP  A  THOUSAND  CANDLES,"  ETC. 


ILLUSTRATED  BY  C.  COLES  PHILLIPS 
AND  REGINALD  BIRCH 


TOOT  BimJl^Wj?  OU  RIEW 


BOSTON   AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

press  Cambri&se 
1910 


COPYRIGHT,    1910,    BY   MEREDITH   NICHOLSON 
ALL    RIGHTS    RESERVED 

Published  October  iqio 


352,7 


TO 

THE  HONORABLE  THOMAS  R.  MARSHALL 

MY  DEAR  GOVERNOR:  —  It  was  ordered  by  the 
franchises  of  destiny  that  you  become  the  chief 
executive  of  a  state  in  which  the  telling  of  tales 
brightened  the  hunter's  camp-fire  and  cheered  the 
lonely  pioneer's  cabin  before  our  people  learned 
the  uses  of  ink;  and  the  supreme  fitness  of  this  lies 
in  the  fact  that  you  are  yourself  the  best  of  story- 
tellers and  entitled,  for  your  excellence  in  this  par- 
ticular, as  well  as  for  weightier  reasons,  to  sit  at  the 
head  of  the  table  in  that  commonwealth  to  which  we 
are  both  bound  by  many  and  dear  ties. 

The  morning  brings  to  your  mail-box  so  many 
demands,  necessitating  the  most  varied  and  delicate 
balancings  and  adjustments,  that  I  serve  you  ill  in 
adding  to  your  burdens  the  little  packet  that  con- 
tains this  tale.  Pray  consider,  however,  that  I  have 
hidden  it  discreetly  beneath  a  pile  of  documents 
touching  nearly  the  state's  business;  or  that  I  hastily 
serve  it  upon  you  in  the  highway,  an  unsanctioned 
writ  from  that  high  court  of  letters  in  which  I  am 
the  least  valiant  among  the  bailiffs. 

Sincerely  yours, 

M.  N. 

MACKINAC  ISLAND, 
August  10,  1910. 


347708 


CONTENTS 

I.  MY  FRIEND  WIGGINS  is  INTRODUCED      .  .      1 

II.  THE  BEGINNING  OF  MY  ADVENTURE  .  .        15 

III.  I    FALL   INTO   A   BRIAR   PATCH              .            .  .36 

IV.  WE    DINE   IN   THE   GUN-ROOM           .           *  *  58 

V.  THE  STRANGE  BEHAVIOR  OF  A  CHIMNEY  .     70 

VI.  I  DELIVER  A  MESSAGE         .        .        .  .        87 

VII.  NINE  SILK  HATS  CROSS  A  STILE     .        •  .  114 

VIII.  CECILIA'S  SILVER  NOTE-BOOK       .        .  .       131 

IX.  I  MEET  A  PLAYFUL  GHOST      ....  157 

X.  MY  BEFUDDLEMENT  INCREASES    .         .  .       167 

XI.  I  PLAY  TRUANT       .        .        .        .        .  .186 

XII.  THE  RIDDLE  OF  THE  SIBYL'S  LEAVES  .       216 

XIII.  I  DISCOVER  Two  GHOSTS          .        .        .  .232 

XIV.  LADY'S  SLIPPER 249 

XV.  Loss  OF  THE  SILVER  NOTE-BOOK     .        .  .  267 

XVI.  JACK  o'  LANTERN  ,      283 

XVII.  SEVEN  GOLD  REEDS 299 

XVIII.  TROUBLE  AT  THE  PRESCOTT  ARMS       .  .       325 

XIX.  THE  GHOST  OF  ADONIRAM  CALDWELL     .  .  350 

XX.  HEZEKIAH  PARTITIONS  THE  KINGDOM  .       372 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN 
SUITORS 


MY   FRIEND   WIGGINS   IS   INTRODUCED 

I  DINED  with  Hartley  Wiggins  at  the  Hare  and 
Tortoise  on  an  evening  in  October,  not  very 
long  ago.  It  may  be  well  to  explain  that  the 
Hare  and  Tortoise  is  the  smallest  and  most  select 
of  clubs,  whose  windows  afford  a  pleasant  view 
of  Gramercy  Park.  The  club  is  comparatively 
young,  and  it  is  our  joke  that  we  are  so  far  all 
tortoises,  creeping  through  our  several  profes- 
sions without  aid  from  any  hare.  I  hasten  to 
explain  that  I  am  a  chimney  doctor.  Wiggins 
is  a  lawyer;  at  least  I  have  seen  his  name  in  a 
list  of  graduates  of  the  Harvard  Law  School, 
and  he  has  an  office  down-town  where  I  have 
occasionally  found  him  sedately  playing  soli- 
taire while  he  waited  for  some  one  to  take  him 
out  to  luncheon.  He  spends  his  summers  on  a 
South  Dakota  ranch,  from  which  he  derives  a 
considerable  income.  When  tough  steaks  are 
served  from  the  club  grill,  we  always  attribute 
them  to  the  cattle  on  Wiggins's  hills.  Or  if  the 

1 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

lamb  is  ancient,  we  declare  it  to  be  of  Wiggins's 
shepherding.  It  is  the  way  of  our  humor  to  hold 
Wiggins  responsible  for  things.  His  good  nature 
is  usually  equal  to  the  worst  we  can  do  to  him. 
He  is  the  kind  of  fellow  that  one  instinctively 
indicts  without  hearing  testimony.  We  all  know 
perfectly  well  that  Wiggins's  ranch  is  a  wheat 
ranch. 

Wiggins  is  an  athlete,  and  his  summers  in  the 
West  and  persistent  training  during  the  win- 
ter in  town  keep  him  in  fine  condition.  As 
I  faced  him  to-night  in  our  favorite  corner  of 
the  Hare  and  Tortoise  dining-room,  the  physical 
man  was  fit  enough;  but  I  saw  at  once  that  he 
was  glum  and  dispirited.  He  had  through  many 
years  honored  me  with  his  confidence,  and  I  felt 
that  to-night,  after  we  got  well  started,  I  should 
hear  what  was  on  his  mind.  I  hoped  to  cheer 
him  with  the  story  of  a  visit  I  had  by  chance 
paid  that  afternoon  to  the  Asolando  Tea-Room; 
for  though  Wiggins  is  a  most  practical  person, 
I  imagined  that  he  would  be  diverted  by  my 
description  of  a  place  which,  I  felt  sure,  nothing 
could  tempt  him  to  visit.  I  shall  never  forget 
the  look  he  gave  me  when  I  remarked,  at  about 
his  third  spoonful  of  soup: 

"By  the  way,  I  dropped  into  an  odd  place 
this  afternoon.  Burne-Jones  buns,  Rossetti  mac- 


MY  FRIEND  WIGGINS  is  INTRODUCED 

caroons,  and  all  that  sort  of  thing.  They  call  it 
the  Asolando"  — 

I  was  ambling  on,  expecting  to  sharpen  his 
curiosity  gradually  as  I  recited  the  joys  of  the 
tea-room;  but  at  "Asolando"  his  spoon  dropped, 
and  he  stared  at  me  blankly.  It  should  be  known 
that  Wiggins  is  not  a  man  whose  composure  is 
lightly  shaken.  The  waiter  who  served  us  glanced 
at  him  in  surprise,  a  fact  which  I  mention  merely 
to  confirm  my  assertion  that  the  dropping  of  a 
spoon  into  his  soup  was  an  extraordinary  occur- 
rence in  Wiggins's  life.  Wiggins  was  a  proper 
person.  On  the  ranch,  twenty  miles  from  a  rail- 
road, he  always  dressed  for  dinner. 

"The  Asolando,"  I  repeated,  to  break  the 
spell  of  his  blank  stare.  "Know  the  place?" 

He  recovered  in  a  moment,  but  he  surveyed 
me  quizzically  before  replying. 

"Of  course  I  have  heard  of  the  Asolando,  but 
I  thought  you  did  n't  go  in  for  that  sort  of  thing. 
It's  a  trifle  girlish,  you  know." 

"That's  hardly  against  it!  I  found  the  girl- 
ishness  altogether  attractive." 

''You  always  were  tolerably  susceptible,  but 
broiled  butterflies  and  moth-wings  souffle  seem 
to  me  rather  pale  food  for  a  man  in  your  vigor- 
ous health." 

"They  must  have  discriminated  in  your  favor; 

3 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

I  saw  no  such  things,  though  to  be  sure  I  was 
afraid  to  quibble  over  the  waitress's  suggestions. 
May  I  ask  when  you  were  there?" 

"Oh,  I  dropped  in  quite  accidentally  one  day 
last  spring.  I  saw  the  sign,  and  remembered 
that  somebody  had  spoken  of  the  place,  and  I 
was  tired,  and  it  was  a  long  way  to  the  club, 
and"  — 

Dissimulation  is  not  an  art  as  Wiggins  at- 
tempts to  practice  it  at  times.  He  is  by  nature 
the  most  straightforward  of  mortals.  It  was 
clear  that  he  was  withholding  something,  and 
I  resolved  to  get  to  the  bottom  of  it. 

"I  don't  think  the  Asolando  is  a  place  that 
would  attract  either  of  us,  and  yet  the  viands 
are  good  as  such  stuff  goes,  and  the  gentle  hand- 
maidens are  restful  to  the  eye,  —  Pippa,  Fran- 
cesca,  Gloria,  and  the  rest  of  'em." 

Wiggins  pried  open  his  artichoke  with  the 
care  of  a  botanist.  He  had  regained  his  com- 
posure, but  I  saw  that  the  subject  interested 
him. 

"You  were  there  this  afternoon?"  he  inquired. 

'Yes,  my  first  and  only  appearance." 

"And  this  is  Monday." 

"The  calendar  has  said  it." 

"So  you  settled  your  bill  with  Pippa!  I  be- 
lieve this  was  her  day." 

4 


MY  FRIEND  WIGGINS  is  INTRODUCED 

"Then  you  really  do  know  the  inner  workings 
of  the  Asolando,"  I  continued;  "I  thought  you 
would  show  your  hand  presently.  Then  it  is 
perhaps  Gloria,  Beatrice  orFrancesca  who  minds 
the  till  on  Tuesdays,  Thursdays  and  Saturdays, 
alternating  with  Pippa,  who  took  my  coin  to- 
day. It 's  a  pretty  idea.  It  has  the  delicacy  of  an 
arrangement  by  Whistler  or  the  charm  of  a  line 
in  Rossetti.  So  you  have  seen  the  blessed  damo- 
zel  at  the  cash-desk." 

"On  the  contrary  I  was  never  there  on  Tues- 
day, Thursday,  or  Saturday,  and  I  therefore 
passed  no  coin  to  Francesca,  Gloria  or  Beatrice. 
My  only  visit  was  on  a  day  last  May,  and  my 
recollection  of  the  system  is  doubtless  imperfect." 

"Then  beyond  doubt  I  saw  Pippa.  She  makes 
the  change  on  Monday,  Wednesday  and  Fri- 
day. Her  eyelashes  are  a  trifle  too  long  for  the 
world's  peace." 

"I  dare  say.  I  have  n't  your  charming  knack, 
Ames,  of  picking  up  acquaintances,  so  you 
must  n't  expect  me  to  form  life-long  friendships 
with  young  women  at  cash-desks.  I  suppose  it 
did  n't  occur  to  you  that  those  young  women 
who  tend  till  and  serve  the  tables  in  there  are 
persons  of  education  and  taste.  The  Asolando 
is  not  a  common  hashery.  I  sometimes  fear  that 
so  much  crawling  through  chimneys  is  clouding 

5 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

your  intellect.  It  ought  to  have  been  clear  even 
to  your  smoky  chimney-pot  that  those  girls  in 
there  are  not  the  kind  you  can  ask  to  meet  you  by 
the  old  mill  at  the  fall  of  dewy  eve,  or  who  write 
notes  to  popular  romantic  actors.  There's  not  a 
girl  in  that  place  who  has  n't  a  social  position  as 
good  as  yours  or  mine.  The  Asolando  's  a  kind 
of  fad,  you  know,  Ames;  it's  not  a  tavern  within 
the  meaning  of  the  inn-keepers'  act,  where 
common  swine  are  fed  for  profit.  The  servants 
serve  for  love  of  the  cause;  it's  a  sort  of  cult. 
But  I  suppose  you  are  incapable  of  grasping  it. 
There  was  always  something  sordid  in  you,  and 
I'm  pained  to  find  that  you 're  getting  worse." 

Wiggins  had,  before  now,  occasionally  taken 
this  attitude  toward  me,  and  it  was  always  with 
a  view  to  obscuring  some  real  issue  between  us. 
He  requires  patience;  it  is  a  mistake  to  attempt 
to  crowd  him;  but  give  him  rope  and  he  will 
twist  his  own  halter. 

We  sparred  further  without  result.  I  had  sug- 
gested a  topic  that  had  clearly  some  painful 
association  for  my  friend.  He  drank  his  coffee 
gloomily  and  lighted  a  cigar  much  blacker  than 
the  one  I  knew  to  be  his  favorite  in  the  Hare  and 
Tortoise  humidor.  He  excused  himself  shortly, 
and  I  had  a  glimpse  of  him  later,  in  the  writing- 
room,  engaged  upon  letters,  a  fact  in  itself  dis- 

6 


MY  FRIEND  WIGGINS  is  INTRODUCED 

quieting,  for  Wiggins  never  wrote  letters,  and 
it  was  he  who  had  favored  making  the  Hare 
and  Tortoise  writing-room  into  a  den  for  pipe- 
smokers.  The  epistolary  habit,  he  maintained, 
was  one  that  should  be  discouraged. 

I  was  moodily  turning  over  the  evening  news- 
papers when  Jewett  turned  up.  Jewett  always 
knows  everything.  I  shall  not  call  him  a  gossip, 
but  he  comes  as  near  deserving  the  name  as  a 
man  dares  who  lectures  on  the  Renaissance  be- 
fore clubs  and  boarding-schools.  Jewett  knows 
his  Botticelli,  but  his  knowledge  of  his  contem- 
poraries is  equally  exact.  He  dropped  the  ball 
into  the  green  of  my  immediate  interest  with  a 
neat  approach-shot. 

"Too  bad  about  old  Wiggy,"  he  remarked 
with  his  preluding  sigh. 

"What's  the  matter  with  Wiggins?"  I  de- 
manded. 

"Ah!  He  has  n't  told  you?  Thought  he  told 
you  everything." 

This  was  meant  for  a  stinger,  and  I  felt  the 
bite  of  it. 

:'You  do  me  too  much  honor.  Wiggins  is  not 
a  man  to  throw  around  his  confidences." 

"And  I  rather  fancy  that  his  love-affairs  in 
particular  are  locked  in  his  bosom." 

Jewett  was  a  master  of  the  art  of  suggestion; 

7 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

he  took  an  unnecessarily  long  time  to  light  a 
cigar  so  that  his  words  might  sink  deep  into  my 
consciousness. 

"Saw  her  once  last  spring.  Got  a  sight  draft 
from  the  Bank  of  Eros.  Followed  her  across  the 
multitudinous  sea.  Bang!" 

"But  Wiggy  has  n't  been  abroad.  Wiggy  was 
on  his  Dakota  ranch  all  summer.  He 's  all  tanned 
from  the  sun,  just  as  he  is  every  fall,"  I  per- 
sisted. 

"Wrote  you  from  out  there,  did  he?  Sent 
you  picture-postals  showing  him  herding  his 
cattle,  or  whatever  the  beasts  are?  Kept  in  touch 
with  you  all  the  time,  did  he?  I  tell  you  his  fine 
color  is  due  to  Switzerland,  not  Dakota." 

"Wiggins  is  n't  a  letter-writer,  nor  the  sort 
of  person  who  wants  to  paper  your  house  with 
picture-postals.  His  not  writing  does  n't  mean 
that  he  was  n't  on  his  ranch,"  I  replied,  annoyed 
by  Jewett's  manner. 

"Never  dropped  you  before,  though,  I  wager," 
he  chirruped.  "I  tell  you  he  saw  Miss  Cecilia 
Hollister  at  the  Asolando  tea-shop:  just  a  glimpse; 
but  almost  immediately  he  went  abroad  in 
pursuit  of  her.  The  chevalier  —  that 's  her  aunt 
Octavia  —  was  along  and  another  niece.  My 
sister  saw  the  bunch  of  them  in  Geneva,  where 
the  chevalier  was  breaking  records.  A  whole 

8 


MY  FRIEND  WIGGINS  is  INTRODUCED 

troop  of  suitors  followed  them  everywhere.  My 
sister  knows  the  girl  —  Cecilia  —  and  she's  known 
Wiggy  all  her  life.  She's  just  home  and  told  me 
about  it  last  night.  She  thinks  the  chevalier 
has  some  absurd  scheme  for  marrying  off  the 
girl.  It 's  all  very  queer,  our  Wiggy  being  mixed 
up  in  it." 

"Don't  be  absurd,  Jewett.  There's  nothing 
unusual  in  a  man  being  in  love;  that's  one 
fashion  that  does  n't  change  much.  I  venture 
to  say  that  Wiggins  will  prove  a  formidable 
suitor.  Wiggins  is  a  gentleman,  and  the  girl 
would  be  lucky  to  get  him." 

"Quite  right,  my  dear  Ames;  but  alas!  there 
are  others.  The  competition  is  encouraged  by 
the  aunt,  the  veteran  chevalier.  My  sister  says 
the  chevalier  seems  to  favor  the  suit  of  a  Ne- 
braska philosopher  who  rejoices  in  the  melodious 
name  of  Dick." 

Jewett  was  playing  me  for  all  his  story  was 
worth,  and  enjoying  himself  immensely. 

"For  Heaven's  sake,  go  on!" 

"Nice  girl,  this  Cecilia.  You  know  the  Hollis- 
ters,  —  oodles  of  money  in  the  family.  The 
chevalier's  father  scored  big  in  baby-buggies  — 
responsible  for  the  modern  sleep-inducing  per- 
ambulators; sold  out  to  a  trust.  The  father 
of  Wiggins's  inamorata  had  started  in  to  be  a 

9 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

marine  painter.  A  founder  of  this  club,  come 
to  think  of  it,  but  dropped  out  long  ago.  You 
have  heard  of  him  —  Bassford  Hollister.  Funny 
thing  his  having  to  give  up  art.  Great  gifts  for 
the  marine,  but  never  could  overcome  tendency 
to  seasickness.  Honest!  Every  time  he  painted 
a  wave  it  upset  him  horribly.  The  doctors 
could  n't  help  him.  Next  tried  his  hand  at  the 
big  gulches  down-town.  There  was  a  chance 
there  to  hit  off  the  metropolitan  sky-line  and 
become  immortal  by  doing  it  first;  but  a  new 
trouble  developed.  Doing  the  high  buildings 
made  him  dizzy!  Honest!  He  was  good,  too, 
and  would  have  made  a  place,  but  he  had  to  cut 
it  out.  He  was  so  torn  up  over  his  two  failures 
that  he  blew  in  his  share  of  the  perambulator 
money  in  riotous  living.  Lost  his  wife  into  the 
bargain,  and  has  settled  down  to  a  peaceful  life 
up  in  Westchester  County  in  one  of  these  cute 
little  bungalows  the  real-estate  operators  build 
for  you  if  you  pay  a  dollar  down  for  a  picture 
of  an  acre  lot." 

"And  the  daughter?" 

"Well,  Bassford  Hollister  has  two  daughters. 
It's  the  older  one  that  has  stolen  Wiggins's 
heart  away.  She's  Cecilia,  you  know.  Very 
literary  and  that  sort  of  thing,  and  pushed  tea 
and  cookies  #t  the  Asolando  when  that  idiocy 

10 


MY  FRIEND  WIGGINS  is  INTRODUCED 

was  opened.  Wiggins  saw  her  there  last  spring. 
Miss  Hollister,  the  aunt,  —  whom  I  'm  fond  of 
calling  the  chevalier,  —  picked  up  her  nieces 
about  that  time  and  hauled  them  off  to  Europe, 
and  Wiggins  scampered  after  them.  I  don't 
know  what  they  did  to  Wiggy,  but  you  see  how 
he  acts.  I  rather  imagine  that  the  chevalier 
did  n't  smile  on  his  suit.  She 's  a  holy  terror, 
that  woman,  with  an  international  reputation  for 
doing  weird  and  most  unaccountable  things.  She 
draws  a  sort  of  royalty  on  all  the  baby-buggies 
in  creation;  it  amounts  to  a  birth-tax,  in  con- 
travention of  the  free  guarantees  of  the  Consti- 
tution. The  people  will  rise  against  it  some  day. 
"She's  plausible  enough,  but  she's  the  past 
mistress  of  ulterior  motive.  She  got  Fortner, 
the  mural  painter,  up  to  a  place  she  used  to  have 
at  Newport  a  few  years  ago,  ostensibly  to  do  a 
frieze  or  something,  and  she  made  him  teach 
her  to  fire  a  gun.  You  know  Fortner,  with  his 
artistic  ideals !  And  he  did  n't  know  any  more 
about  guns  than  a  flea.  It  was  droll,  decidedly 
droll.  But  she  kept  him  there  a  month, — 
would  n't  let  him  off  the  reservation;  but  she 
paid  him  his  fee  just  the  same,  though  he  never 
painted  a  stroke.  When  he  got  back  to  town,  he 
was  a  wreck.  It  was  just  like  being  in  jail.  I 
warn  you  to  let  her  alone.  If  you  should  under- 

11 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

take  to  fix  her  flues  she's  likely  to  put  you  to 
work  digging  potatoes.  She's  no  end  of  a  case." 

"Well,  Wiggins  is  a  good  fellow,  one  of  the 
very  best,"  I  remarked,  as  I  absorbed  these 
revelations,  "and  it  isn't  the  girl's  aunt  he 
wants  to  marry." 

"He's  a  capital  fellow,"  affirmed  Jewett,  "and 
that's  why  it's  a  sin  this  had  to  happen  to  him. 
There's  no  telling  where  this  affair  may  lead 
him.  There's  something  queer  in  the  wind,  all 
right.  The  chevalier  has  brother  Bassford  where 
he  can't  whimper;  I  rather  fancy  he  feeds  from 
her  hand.  His  girls  have  n't  any  prospects  except 
through  the  chevalier.  Nice  girls,  so  I'm  told; 
but  between  the  father  with  his  vertiginous 
tendencies  and  a  lunatic  aunt  who  holds  the  fam- 
ily money-bags,  I  don't  see  much  ahead  of  them. 
Miss  Cecilia  Hollister  is  living  with  her  aunt; 
it's  a  sort  of  compulsory  sequestration;  she  has 
to  do  it  whether  she  wants  to  or  not.  I  rather 
fancy  it's  to  keep  her  away  from  Wiggins." 

"And  the  other  sister;  where  does  she  come 
in?" 

"Not  important,  I  fancy.  Rumor  is  silent 
touching  her.  In  fact  I  've  never  heard  anything 
of  her.  But  this  Cecilia  is  no  end  handsome  and 
proud.  Poor  old  Wiggy!" 

I  was  already  ashamed  of  myself  for  having 

12 


MY  FRIEND  WIGGINS  is  INTRODUCED 

encouraged  Jewett  to  discuss  Wiggins's  affairs, 
and  was  about  to  leave  him,  when  he  snorted,  in 


a  disagreeable  way  he  had,  at  some  joke  that 
had  occurred  to  him,  and  he  continued  chuck- 
ling to  himself  to  attract  my  attention.  My 
frown  did  not  dismay  him. 

13 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

"I  knew  there  was  something,"  he  was  saying, 
"about  Miss  Cecilia's  younger  sister,  and  I've 
just  recalled  it.  The  girl  has  a  most  extraordinary 
name,  quite  the  most  remarkable  you  ever  heard." 

He  laughed  until  he  was  purple  in  the  face. 
I  did  not  imagine  that  any  name  known  to 
feminine  nomenclature  could  be  so  humorous. 

"Hezekiah!  Bang!  That's  the  little  sister's 
name.  Bassford  Hollister  had  been  saving  that 
name  for  a  son,  who  never  appeared,  to  do  honor 
to  old  Hezekiah,  the  perambulator-chap.  So  they 
named  the  girl  for  her  grand-dad.  Bang!  One 
of  the  apostles,  Hezekiah!" 

I  waited  for  his  mirth  to  wear  itself  out,  and 
then  rose,  to  terminate  the  interview  with  an 
adequate  dramatic  dismissal. 

"You  poor  pagan,"  I  remarked,  with  such 
irony  as  I  could  command;  "it's  too  bad  you 
insist  on  revealing  the  abysmal  depths  of  your 
ignorance:  Hezekiah  was  not  an  apostle,  but  a 
mighty  king  before  the  day  of  apostles." 

I  left  him  blinking,  and  unconvinced  as  to 
Hezekiah's  proper  place  in  history. 

Wiggins,  I  learned  at  the  office,  had,  within 
half  an  hour,  left  the  club  hurriedly  in  a  cab, 
taking  a  trunk  with  him.  He  had  mentioned  no 
mail-address  to  the  clerk. 

And  this  was  very  unlike  Wiggins. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   BEGINNING   OF   MY   ADVENTURE 

WIGGINS'S  strange  conduct  and  Jewett's  dark 
hints  so  disturbed  me  that  the  very  next  after- 
noon I  again  sought  the  Asolando  Tea-Room, 
feeling  that  in  its  atmosphere  I  might  best 
weigh  the  few  facts  I  possessed  touching  my 
friend's  love-affairs. 

Those  who  care  for  details  in  these  matters 
may  be  interested  to  know  that  the  Asolando 
is  tucked  away  among  print-shops  and  exclusive 
haberdashers,  a  stone's  throw  from  Fifth  Ave- 
nue. The  Asolando  Tea-Room  has  a  history  of 
its  own,  but  it  is  not  the  office  of  this  chroni- 
cler to  record  it.  Weightier  matters  are  ahead 
of  us;  and  it  must  suffice  that  the  Asolando  is 
sacred  to  wooers  of  the  flute  of  Pan,  secession 
photographers,  and  confident  believers  in  an 
early  revival  of  the  poetic  drama.  One  of  my 
friends,  who  has  probably  done  more  to  popu- 
larize Nietzsche  than  any  other  American,  had 
frequently  urged  me  to  visit  the  Asolando, 
where,  he  declared,  the  daintiest  imaginable 

15 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

luncheons  could  be  obtained  at  nominal  prices; 
but  I  should  not  have  paid  this  second  visit  had 
it  not  been  for  Jewett's  history. 

It  was  common  gossip  in  studios  where  I 
loafed  between  my  professional  engagements, 
that  the  monthly  deficit  at  the  Asolando  was 
cared  for  by  a  retired  banker  whose  weakness  is 
sonnet-sequences.  As  to  the  truth  of  this  I  have 
no  opinion.  It  will  suffice  if  I  convey  in  the 
fewest  possible  lines  a  suggestion  of  the  tran- 
quillity, the  charming  cloistral  peace  of  the  little 
room,  with  its  Arts  and  Crafts  chairs  and  tables, 
its  racks  of  books,  its  portraits  of  Browning, 
Rossetti,  Burne-Jones  and  kindred  spirits;  nor 
should  I  fail  to  mention  the  delightful  inad- 
vertence with  which  neatly  framed  excerpts 
from  the  bright  page  of  British  song  are  scat- 
tered along  the  walls.  Nowhere  else,  many  had 
averred,  was  one  so  likely  to  learn  of  the  latest 
Celtic  poet,  or  of  a  newly-discovered  Keats 
letter;  and  lest  injustice  be  done  in  these  sug- 
gestions to  the  substantial  scholarly  attainments 
of  the  habitues,  I  must  record  that  it  was  over 
a  cup  of  tea  in  the  Asolando  that  Bennett  made 
the  first  notes  for  his  revolutionary  essay  on 
the  Sapphic  fragments  in  a  dog-eared  text  still 
treasured  among  the  Room's  memorabilia. 

I  chose  a  table,  sat  down,  and  suggested  (one 

16 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  MY  ADVENTURE 

does  not  order  at  the  Asolando)  a  few  articles 
from  the  card  an  attendant  handed  me. 

"We  're  out  of  the  Paracelsus  ginger-cookies," 
she  replied,  "but  I  recommend  a  Ruskin  sand- 
wich with  our  own  special  chocolate.  The 
whipped  cream  is  unusually  fine  to-day." 

She  eyed  me  with  a  severity  to  which  I  was 
not  accustomed,  and  I  acquiesced  without 
parley  in  her  suggestion.  Before  leaving  me  she 
placed  on  my  table  the  latest  minor  poet,  in 
green  and  gold. 

It  was  nearly  three  o'clock,  and  there  were  few 
customers  in  the  Asolando.  At  the  next  table 
two  women  were  engaged  in  conversation  in  the 
subdued  tones  the  place  compelled.  I  surmised 
from  the  amount  and  variety  of  their  impedi- 
menta and  their  abstracted  air,  peculiar  to 
those  who  partake  of  lobster  salad  with  an  eye 
on  the  4.18,  that  they  were  suburbanites.  One 
of  them  drew  from  her  net  shopping-bag  several 
sheets  of  robin's-egg  blue  note-paper  and  began 
to  read.  By  the  jingle  of  the  rhymes  and  the 
flow  of  the  rhythm  it  was  clear  even  to  my 
ignorant  lay  mind  that  her  offering  was  a  chant- 
royale.  When  she  had  concluded  her  reading 
her  friend  silently  pressed  her  hand,  and  after  a 
subdued  debate  for  possession  of  the  check,  they 
took  their  departure,  bound,  I  surmised,  for 

17 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

some  muse-haunted  Lesbos  among  the  hills 
of  New  Jersey. 

I  was  now  alone  in  the  Asolando.  The  attend- 
ing deities  in  their  snowy  gowns  had  vanished 
behind  the  screen  at  the  rear  of  the  room;  the 
food  and  drink  with  which  I  had  been  promptly 
served  proved  excellent;  even  the  minor  poet 
in  green  and  gold  had  held  my  attention,  though 
imitations  of  Coventry  Patmore's  odes  bore  me 
as  a  rule.  Near  the  street,  half-concealed  be- 
hind a  mosque-like  grill,  sat  the  cashier,  reading. 
A  bundle  of  joss-sticks  in  a  green  jar  beside  this 
young  woman  sent  a  thin  smoke  into  the  air. 
Her  head  was  bent  above  her  book  in  quiet 
attention;  the  light  from  an  electric  lamp  made 
a  glow  of  her  golden  hair.  She  was  an  incident 
of  the  general  picture,  a  part  of  a  scene  that 
contained  no  jarring  note.  A  man  who  could 
devise,  in  the  heart  of  the  great  city,  a  place 
so  instinct  with  repose,  so  lulling  to  all  the 
senses,  was  not  less  than  a  public  benefactor, 
and  I  resolved  on  the  spot  to  purchase  and  read, 
at  any  sacrifice,  the  sonnet-sequences  of  the 
reputed  angel  of  the  Asolando. 

It  was  at  this  moment  that  the  adventure  — 
for  it  shall  have  no  meaner  name  —  actually 
began.  My  eyes  were  still  enjoying  the  Ros- 
setti-like  vision  in  the  cashier's  tiny  booth, 

18 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  MY  ADVENTURE 

when  a  figure  suddenly  darkened  the  street  door 
just  beyond  her.  The  girl  lifted  her  head.  On 
the  instant  the  lamp-key  clicked  as  she  ex- 
tinguished her  light,  and  the  aureoled  head 
ceased  to  be.  And  coming  toward  me  down  the 
shop  I  beheld  a  lady,  a  lady  of  years,  who  passed 
the  cashier's  desk  with  her  eyes  intent  upon  the 
room's  inner  recesses.  Her  gown,  of  a  new 
fashionable  gray,  was  of  the  severest  tailor  cut. 
Her  hat  was  a  modified  fedora,  gray  like  the 
gown,  and  adorned  with  a  single  gray  feather. 
She  was  short,  slight,  erect,  and  moved  with  a 
quick  bird-like  motion,  pausing  and  glancing 
at  the  vacant  tables  that  lay  between  me  and 
the  door.  Her  air  of  abstraction  became  her, 
and  she  merged  pleasantly  into  the  color-scheme 
of  the  room.  As  her  glance  ranged  the  wall  I 
thought  that  she  searched  for  some  favorite 
flower  of  song  among  the  framed  quotations, 
but  I  saw  now  that  her  gaze  was  bent  too  low 
for  this.  She  appeared  to  be  engaged  in  a  calcu- 
lation of  some  sort,  and  she  raised  a  lorgnette 
to  assist  her  in  counting  the  tables.  The  cashier 
passed  behind  her  unseen  and  vanished.  I  heard 
the  newcomer  reciting:  — 

"One,  twro,  three,  four,  five,  six,  seven;"  and 
at  seven  her  eyes  rested  upon  me  with  a  look 
that  mingled  surprise  and  annoyance.  She  took 

19 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

a  step  toward  me,  and  I  started  to  rise,  but  she 
said  quickly:  - 

"I  beg  your  pardon,  but  this  seems  to  be  the 
seventh  table." 


"Now  that  you  call  my  attention  to  it,"  I 
remarked,  gaining  my  feet,  "I  am  bound  to 
concede  the  point.  If  by  any  chance  I  am  in- 
truding "  — 

"Not  in  the  least.  On  the  other  hand  I  beg 
20 


THE  BEGINNING  OP  MY  ADVENTURE 

that  you  remain  where  you  are; "  and  without  fur- 
ther ado  she  sank  into  a  chair  opposite  my  own. 

I  tinkled  a  tiny  crystal  bell  that  was  among 
the  table-furnishings,  and  a  waitress  appeared 
and  handed  the  lady  who  had  thus  introduced 
herself  to  my  acquaintance  a  copy  of  the  tiny 
card  on  which  the  articles  of  refreshment  offered 
by  the  Asolando  were  indicated  within  a  border 
of  hand-painted  field  daisies. 

"Never  mind  that,"  said  the  lady  in  gray,  ig- 
noring the  card.  "You  may  bring  me  a  caviare 
sandwich  and  a  cocktail,  —  a  pink  one  —  pro- 
viding,—  providing,"  — and  she  held  the  wait- 
ress with  her  eye,  -  "you  have  the  imported 
caviare  and  your  bar-keeper  knows  the  proper 
frappe  of  the  spirit-lifter  I  have  named." 

"Pardon  me,  madam,"  replied  the  waitress 
icily,  "but  you  have  mistaken  the  place.  The 
Asolando  serves  nothing  stronger  than  the  pure 
water  of  its  own  fount  of  Castalia;  intoxicants 
are  not  permitted  here." 

"Intoxicants!"  repeated  the  old  lady  with 
asperity.  "Do  I  look  like  a  person  given  to 
intoxication?  I  dare  say  "your  Castalia  water  is 
nothing  but  Croton  whose  flavor  has  been  de- 
stroyed by  distillation.  You  may  bring  me  the 
sandwich  I  have  mentioned  and  with  it  a  pot 
of  tea.  Yes,  thank  you;  lemon  with  the  tea." 


THE  SIEGE  OP  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

As  the  girl  vanished  with  the  light  tread  that 
marked  the  service  of  the  place,  I  again  made  as 
to  rise,  but  the  old  lady  lifted  her  hand  with  a 
delaying  gesture. 

"Pray  remain.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  we  have 
friends  and  ideas  in  common,  and  as  you  were 
seated  at  the  seventh  table  it  is  possible  that 
some  ordering  of  fate  has  brought  us  together." 

She  took  from  me,  in  the  hand  which  she  had 
now  ungloved,  the  copy  of  my  minor  poet, 
glanced  at  it  scornfully,  and  tossed  it  upon  the 
floor  with  every  mark  of  disdain. 

"What  species  of  mental  disorder  does  this 
place  represent  ?  "  she  demanded. 

"It  is  sacred  to  the  fine  arts,  apparently;  an 
endowed  tea-room,  where  persons  of  artistic 
ideals  may  come  to  refresh  body  and  soul.  Such 
at  least  seems  to  be  the  programme.  This  is 
only  my  second  visit,  but  I  have  long  heard  it 
spoken  of  by  artists,  poets,  and  others  of  my 
friends." 

"I  am  sixty-two  years  old,  young  man,  and 
I  beg  to  inform  you  that  I  consider  the  Asolando 
the  most  preposterous  thing  I  have  ever  heard 
of  in  this  most  preposterous  city.  And  from  a 
casual  glimpse  of  you  I  feel  justified  in  saying 
that  a  man  in  your  apparent  physical  health 
might  be  in  better  business  than  frequenting, 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  MY  ADVENTURE 

in  mid-afternoon,  a  shop  that  seems  to  be  a  re- 
markably stupid  expression  of  twentieth-cen- 
tury anaemia. " 

"Attendance  here  is  not  compulsory,"  I  re- 
marked defensively. 

"If  you  imply  that  I  must  have  sought  the 
place  voluntarily,  let  me  correct  your  false  im- 
pression immediately.  I  dropped  in  here  for  the 
excellent  reason  that  this  shop  is  the  seventh  in 
numerical  progression  from  Fifth  Avenue." 

"You  were  not  guided  by  any  feeling  of  in- 
terest, then,  but  rather  by  superstition?" 

"That  remark  is  unworthy  of  a  man  of  your 
apparent  intelligence.  I  was  born  on  the  seventh 
of  November,  and  all  the  great  events  of  my  life 
have  occurred  on  the  seventh  of  the  month. 
If  you  were  to  suggest  that  I  am  of  an  adventur- 
ous or  romantic  nature,  I  should  readily  acqui- 
esce; but  the  sevens  in  my  life  have  been  so 
potent  an  influence  in  all  my  affairs  that  my 
belief  in  that  numeral  has  become  almost  a 
religious  faith;  and  if  you  have  been  a  reader 
of  Scripture  you  will  understand  that  one  does 
not  become  a  pagan  in  ascribing  to  seven  all 
manner  of  subtle  influences." 

I  was  relieved  to  find  that  she  accepted  the 
tea  and  sandwiches  the  waitress  had  brought 
without  parley.  It  is  with  shame  I  confess  that 

23 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

in  the  first  moments  of  my  encounter  I  believed 
her  capable  of  quarreling  with  a  waitress;  but 
she  thanked  the  girl  pleasantly,  lifting  her  head 
with  a  smile  that  illumined  her  face  attractively. 
Her  demand  for  a  cocktail  had  not  been  wholly 
convincing  as  to  her  sincerity,  and  I  wondered 
whether  she  were  not  playing  a  part  of  some 
kind.  She  suggested  pleasant  and  wholesome 
things  —  tiny  gardens  with  neat  borders  of  box 
and  primly-ordered  beds  of  spicy,  old-fashioned 
pinks  before  the  day  of  carnations,  and  the 
verbenas,  heliotrope,  and  honeysuckle  we  asso- 
ciate with  our  grandmothers'  taste  in  floricul- 
ture. Or  perhaps  I  strike  nearer  the  gold  with 
an  intimation  of  a  sunny  window-ledge,  banked 
neatly  and  not  too  abundantly  in  geraniums. 

In  any  event  the  impression  was  wholly  agree- 
able. I  had  to  do  with  a  lady  and  a  lady  of  no 
mean  degree.  The  marks  of  breeding  were  upon 
her,  and  she  spoke  with  that  quiet  authority 
that  is  the  despair  of  the  vain  and  vulgar.  Her 
features  were  small  and  delicate;  her  ringless 
hands  were  perfectly  formed,  and  both  face  and 
hands  belied  the  age  to  which  she  had  so  frankly 
confessed.  She  was  more  than  twice  my  age, 
and  there  was  not  the  slightest  reason  why  she 
should  not  address  me  if  it  pleased  her  to  do 
so;  and  her  obsession  as  to  the  potency  of  the 

24 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  MY  ADVENTURE 

numeral  seven  was  not  in  itself  proof  of  an  ill- 
balanced  mind.  I  recalled  that  my  own  mother 
had,  throughout  her  life,  imputed  all  manner  of 
occult  powers  and  influences  to  the  number 
thirteen,  and  I  have  myself  always  been  averse 
to  walking  beneath  a  ladder.  Musing  thus,  I 
reached  the  conclusion  that  this  encounter  was 
very  likely  the  sort  of  thing  that  happened  to 
patrons  of  the  Asolando.  My  time  has,  however, 
a  certain  value,  and  I  began  to  wonder  just  how 
I  should  escape.  I  was  about  to  excuse  myself 
when  my  companion  suddenly  put  down  her 
cup  and  addressed  me  with  a  directness  that 
seemed  habitual  in  her. 

"I  have  formed  an  excellent  opinion  of  your 
bringing  up  from  the  manner  in  which  you  have 
suffered  my  advances,  if  I  may  so  call  them. 
You  act  and  speak  like  a  gentleman  of  education. 
I  imagine  from  your  being  in  this  strange  place 
that  you  may  be  a  water-colorist  or  a  designer 
of  I 'art-nouveau  wall-papers,  though  I  trust  for 
your  own  sake  that  I  am  mistaken.  Or  it  may 
be  that  you  are  a  magazine  poet,  though  when 
I  tell  you  that  I  read  no  poets  but  Isaiah  and 
Walt  Whitman,  you  will  understand  that  mere 
verse  does  not  attract  me.  All  this"  —  and  she 
indicated  the  mottoes  on  the  wall  with  a  slight 
movement  of  the  head  -  "is  the  sheerest  rub- 

25 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 


bish,  a  form  of  disease.   Will  you  kindly  tell  me 
the  nature  of  your  occupation?" 

I  produced  one  of  my  professional  cards. 


ARNOLD  AMES 

CONSULTANT   IN   CHIMNEYS 

Suite  92,  Landon  Building 


She  read  it  aloud  without  glasses  and  mused  a 
moment. 

"This  is  very  curious,"  she  remarked,  placing 
my  card  in  a  silver  case  she  drew  from  her 
pocket.  "This  is  very  curious  indeed.  It  was 
only  yesterday  that  my  friend  General  Glenden- 
ning  was  speaking  of  you.  He  told  me  that  you 
had  rendered  him  the  greatest  service  in  adjust- 
ing several  flues  in  his  country  house  at  Shinne- 
cock.  My  own  fireplaces  doubtless  require  at- 
tention, and  you  may  consider  yourself  retained. 
I  shall  make  an  early  appointment  with  you. 
You  will  find  my  name  and  residence  suffi- 
ciently described  on  this  card." 


Miss  Hollister 

HOPEFIELD  MANOR 

26 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  MY  ADVENTURE 

"Oh!"  I  exclaimed,  bowing.  "Any  further 
introduction  is  unnecessary,  Miss  Hollister." 

"The  name  is  familiar?  I  recall  that  General 
Glendenning  mentioned  that  you  were  related  to 
the  Ames  family  of  Hartford,  and  your  mother 
was  a  Farquhar  of  Charlottesville,  Virginia.  If 
you  bear  your  father's  name,  I  dare  say  it  was 
he  whom  I  met  ten  years  ago  in  Paris.  There 
is  no  reason,  therefore,  why  we  should  not  be 
the  best  of  friends." 

She  continued  to  talk  as  she  drew  on  her 
gloves,  and  I  saw,  as  her  eyes  rested  on  mine 
from  time  to  time  during  this  process,  that  they 
were  the  most  kindly  and  humorous  eyes  in  the 
world.  Her  face  was  scarcely  wrinkled,  but  the 
hair  that  showed  under  the  small  plain  hat  was 
evenly  and  beautifully  gray.  It  was  a  kind  fate 
indeed  that  had  led  me  back  to  the  Asolando, 
and  introduced  me  to  the  aunt  of  Wiggins's 
inamorata. 

It  may  well  be  believed  that  I  was  immedi- 
ately interested,  attentive,  absorbed.  As  she 
smoothed  her  gloves,  Miss  Hollister  continued 
to  speak  in  a  low  musical  voice  that  was  devoid 
of  any  of  the  quavers  of  age. 

"On  the  day  I  reached  my  sixtieth  year,  Mr. 
Ames,  I  decided  that  my  humdrum  life  must 
cease.  The  strictest  conventions  had  guided  me 

27 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

from  earliest  childhood.  My  experience  of  life 
had  been  limited  to  those  things  which  women 
of  education  and  means  enjoy  —  or  suffer,  as 
you  please  to  take  it.  I  resolved  that  for  the 
years  that  remained  to  me  I  should  seek  to  enjoy 
myself  after  my  own  fashion.  To  sit  in  the  ingle- 
nook  and  knit,  with  no  human  companionship 
but  sick  kittens,  with  dull  monotony  broken 
only  by  visits  from  dutiful  clergymen  in  pursuit 
of  alms  for  foreign  missions,  was  not  for  me. 
Two  years  ago  I  chartered  a  yacht  and  cruised 
among  the  Lesser  Antilles,  enjoying  many 
adventures.  Later  I  crossed  the  Andes;  and  I 
have  just  returned  from  Switzerland,  where  I 
accomplished  some  of  the  most  difficult  ascents. 
I  have  a  clipping  bureau  engaged  to  inform  me  of 
all  rumors  of  hidden  treasure  and  sunken  ships, 
and  I  hope  that  of  this  something  may  come, 
as  I  retain  a  marine  engineer  and  corps  of  divers 
and  can  leave  at  an  hour's  notice  for  any  likely 
hunting-ground.  This  may  strike  you  as  the 
most  whimsical  self-indulgence.  Tell  me  can- 
didly whether  my  remarks  so  affect  you.'* 

"If  it  were  not  that  your  benefactions  of  all 
kinds  have  given  you  noble  eminence  among 
American  philanthropists,  I  might  be  less  biased 
in  favor  of  the  sort  of  thing  you  describe;  but 
your  gifts  to  orphanages,  colleges,  hospitals"  — 

28 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  MY  ADVENTURE 

"Ah!"  she  interrupted;  "enough  of  that. 
Philanthropy  in  these  times  is  only  selfish  exploi- 
tation, the  recreation  of  the  conscience-stricken. 
But  you  see  no  reason  why,"  she  pursued  ea- 
gerly, "if  I  wished  to  dig  up  the  Caribbean 
Sea  in  search  of  Spanish  doubloons,  I  should 
not  do  so?  Answer  me  frankly,  without  the 
slightest  fear." 

"I  assure  you,  Miss  Hollister,  that  such  pro- 
jects appeal  to  me  strongly.  I  have  often 
lamented  that  my  own  lot  fell  in  these  eventless 
times.  As  an  architect  I  proved  something  of 
a  failure;  as  a  chimney-doctor  I  lead  a  useful 
life,  but  the  very  usefulness  of  it  bores  me.  And 
besides,  many  people  take  me  for  a  sweep." 

"I  dare  say  they  do,  for  unfortunately  many 
people  are  fools.  But  I  am  bent  upon  adventure. 
It  has  dawned  upon  me  that  every  day  has  its 
possibilities,  that  the  right  turn  at  any  corner 
may  bring  me  face  to  face  with  the  most  stirring 
encounters.  My  age  protects  me  where  youth 
must  timidly  turn  back.  My  physician  pro- 
nounces me  good  for  ten  years  more  of  active 
life,  and  I  intend  to  keep  amused.  If  I  were  a 
young  man  like  you,  I  should  crawl  through 
chimneys  no  more,  but  take  to  the  open  road. 
I  resent  the  harsh  clang  of  these  meaningless 
years.  As  I  walked  among  the  hills  that  lie 

29 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

behind  the  Manor  this  morning  I  heard  the 
bugles  calling.  Out  there  in  the  Avenue  at  this 
hour  there  are  miles  of  fat  dowagers  in  padded 
broughams  who  think  of  nothing  but  clothes 
and  food.  And  speaking  of  food,"  she  continued, 
with  a  droll  turn,  "I  am  convinced  that  the 
caviare  in  that  sandwich  was  never  nearer 
Russia  than  Casco  Bay." 

She  drew  out  her  watch,  and  noting  the  hour, 
concluded:  — 

"Clearly  we  have  much  in  common.  I  should 
like  to  ask  you  further  as  to  your  unusual  pro- 
fession, but  errands  summon  me  elsewhere. 
However,  something  tells  me  we  shall  meet 
again." 

She  rose  in  her  swift  bird-like  fashion  and 
passed  lightly  down  the  room  and  through  the 
door.  She  had  left  a  dollar  beside  her  plate  to 
pay  her  check,  which  I  noted  called  for  only 
forty  cents.  I  glanced  at  the  cashier's  desk. 
The  aureoled  head  had  not  reappeared;  but 
immediately  I  heard  a  voice  murmuring  beside 
me.  I  had  believed  myself  alone,  and  in  my 
surprise  I  thought  some  wizardry  had  made 
audible  one  of  the  verses  on  the  wall. 

*'  What  of  Rafael's  sonnets,  Dante's  picture  "  — 

It  was  she  whose  aureoled  head  I  had  marked 

30 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  MY  ADVENTURE 

earlier  in  the  receipt  of  custom,  the  girl  who  had 
vanished  as  Miss  Hollister  appeared.  She  wore 
the  snowy  vestments  of  the  other  attending 
vestals,  with  the  difference  that  the  cap  that 
crowned  the  waitresses  was  omitted  in  her  case. 
This  I  took  to  be  the  Asolando's  tribute  to  her 
adorable  head,  which  clearly  did  not  need  the 
electric  light  or  other  adventitious  aid  to  invoke 
its  lovely  glow.  The  line  she  had  spoken  hung 
goldenly  upon'the  air.  She  was  not  tall,  and  her 
eyes,  I  saw,  were  brown.  She  had  clearly  not 
climbed  far  the  stairway  of  her  years,  but  her 
serenity  was  the  least  bit  disconcerting. 

"Pardon  me,"  I  began,  "but  I  am  an  ignorant 
Philistine,  and  cannot  cap  the  verse  you  have 
quoted." 

"There  is  no  reason  why  you  should  do  so. 
It  is  the  rule  of  the  Asolando  that  we  shall 
attract  the  attention  of  customers  when  neces- 
sary by  speaking  a  line  of  verse.  We  are  not 
allowed  to  open  a  conversation,  no  matter  how 
imperative,  with  'Listen,'  or  the  even  more  vul- 
gar  'Say/; 

"A  capital  idea,  of  which  I  heartily  approve, 
but  now  that  I  am  a  waiting  auditor,  eager"  — 

"It's  merely  the  check,  if  you  please,"  she 
interrupted  coldly.  "My  desk  is  closed,  and  the 
Room  will  refuse  further  patrons  for  the  next 

31 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

hour,  as  the  executive  committee  of  the  Shelley 
Society  meets  here  at  four  o'clock  and  the  Aso- 
lando  is  denied  to  outsiders." 

"This,  then,  is  my  dismissal?  The  lady  who 
joined  me  here  for  a  time  left  a  dollar,  which, 
you  will  see,  is  somewhat  in  excess  of  her  check. 
My  own  charge  of  fifty  cents  is  so  moderate  that 
I  cannot  do  less  than  leave  a  dollar  also.'*  •> 

"Thank  you,"  she  replied,  unshaken  by  my 
generosity.  "The  tips  at  the  Asolando  all  go  to 
the  Sweetness  and  Light  Club,  which  is  just  now 
engaged  in  circulating  Matthew  Arnold's  poems 
in  leaflet  form  in  the  jobbing  district." 

"I  sympathize  with  that  propaganda,"  I  re- 
plied, gathering  up  my  hat  and  stick,  "and  am 
delighted  to  contribute  to  its  support.  And  now 
I  dare  say  you  would  be  glad  to  be  rid  of  me. 
The  Asolando  has  tolerated  me  longer  than  my 
slight  purchases  justified." 

I  bowed  and  had  turned  away,  when  she 
arrested  me  with  the  line,  — 

,"My  good  blade  carves  the  casques  of  men." 

I  turned  toward  her.  Several  of  the  waitresses 
were  now  engaged  in  rearranging  the  tables, 
but  they  seemed  not  to  heed  us. 

"Permit  me  to  inquire,"  she  asked,  "whether 
the  lady  who  joined  you  here  expressed  any  in- 

32 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  MY  ADVENTURE 

terest  in  the  life  beautiful  as  it  is  exemplified 
in  the  Asolando?" 

"I  am  constrained  to  say  that  she  did  not. 
She  spoke  of  the  Asolando  in  the  most  contume- 
lious terms." 

The  golden  head  bowed  slightly,  and  a  smile 
hovered  about  her  lips;  but  her  amusement  at 
my  answer  was  more  eloquently  stated  in  her 
eyes. 

"I  must  explain  that  my  sole  excuse  for  ad- 
dressing you  is  that  we  are  required  to  learn, 
where  possible,  just  why  strangers  seek  the 
Asolando." 

"  In  the  case  of  the  lady  to  whom  you  refer,  it 
was  a  matter  of  this  being  the  seventh  shop  from 
the  corner;  and  my  own  appearance  was  due 
to  the  idlest  curiosity,  inspired  by  enthusiastic 
descriptions  of  the  Asolando's  atmosphere  and 
rumors  of  the  cheapness  of  its  food." 

"The  reasons  are  quite  ample,"  was  her  only 
comment,  and  her  manner  did  not  encourage 
further  conversation. 

"May  I  ask,"  I  persisted,  "whether  the 
Asolando's  staff  is  permanent,  and  whether,  if  I 
return  another  day" 

"I  take  it  that  you  do  not  mean  to  be  imperti- 
nent, so  I  will  answer  that  my  service  here  is 
limited  to  Tuesdays,  Thursdays,  and  Saturdays. 

33 


THE  SIEGE  OP  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

On  the  other  days  Pippa  is  in  the  cash-booth. 
My  name  at  the  Asolando  is  Francesca." 

"I  had  guessed  it  might  be  Lalage  or  Chloris," 
I  ventured. 

She  shook  her  head  gravely. 

"  Kindly  write  your  name  in  the  visitors'  book 
at  the  door  as  you  pass  out." 

There  was  no  ignoring  this  hint.  I  thought  she 
smiled  as  I  left  her. 


Ill 

I   FALL   INTO   A   BRIAR   PATCH 

Miss  HOLLISTER'S  summons  lay  on  my  desk  the 
next  morning  and  was  of  the  briefest.  I  was 
requested  to  call  at  Hopefield  Manor  at  four 
o'clock  the  following  afternoon,  being  Thursday. 
A  trap  would  meet  me  at  Katonah,  and  it  was 
suggested  that  I  come  prepared  to  spend  the 
night,  so  that  the  condition  of  the  flues  might  be 
discussed  and  any  necessary  changes  planned 
during  the  evening.  The  note,  signed  Octavia 
Hollister,  was  written  in  a  flowing  hand,  on  a 
wholly  impeccable  note  sheet  stamped  Hopefield 
Manor,  Katonah. 

Before  taking  the  train  I  sought  Wiggins 
by  telephone  at  his  office,  and  at  the  Hare  and 
Tortoise,  where  he  lodged,  but  without  learning 
anything  as  to  his  whereabouts.  His  office  did 
not  answer,  but  Wiggins's  office  had  never  been 
responsive  to  the  telephone,  so  this  was  not  sig- 
nificant. The  more  I  considered  his  conduct  dur- 
ing the  recital  of  my  visit  to  the  Asolando  the 
more  I  wondered;  and  in  spite  of  my  wish  to 
ignore  utterly  Jewett's  revelations  as  to  Wig- 

35 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

gins's  summer  abroad,  I  was  forced  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  Jewett  had  not  lied.  I  had  known 
Wiggins  long,  and  this  was  the  first  time  that  I 
had  ever  been  conscious  of  any  withholding  of 
confidence  on  his  part;  and  on  my  own  I  had  not 
merely  confided  all  my  hopes  and  aims  to  him, 
but  I  had  leaned  upon  him  often  in  my  perplexi- 
ties. There  was,  indeed,  a  kind  of  boyish  com- 
pact between  us,  that  we  should  support  each 
other  through  all  difficulties.  This,  as  I  remem- 
bered, dated  back  to  our  prep  school-days  and 
had  been  reinforced  by  a  fearsome  oath,  inspired 
doubtless  by  some  dark  fiction  that  had  capti- 
vated our  youthful  imaginations.  His  failure  to 
tell  me  of  his  summer  abroad  or  of  his  interest  in 
the  Hollisters  when  I  had  afforded  him  so  excel- 
lent an  opening  by  my  reference  to  the  Asolando 
emphasized  the  seriousness  of  his  plight.  His 
reserve  hid,  I  knew,  a  diffident  and  sensitive 
nature,  and  it  was  wholly  possible  that  if  his 
affair  with  Cecilia  Hollister  had  not  prospered 
he  had  fled  to  his  ranch  there  to  wrestle  in  seclu- 
sion with  his  disappointment.  My  mind  was 
busy  with  such  speculations  as  I  sped  toward 
Katonah,  where  I  found  the  trap  from  Hopefield 
Manor  awaiting  me. 

"It's  rather  poor  going  over  the  hills;  about 
five  miles,  sir,"  said  the  driver,  as  we  set  off. 

36 


I   FALL   INTO   A    BRIAR   PATCH 


This  sort  of  thing  was  wholly  usual  in  the 
nature  of  my  vocation.  The  flues  in  country 
houses  seem  much  more  willful  and  obdurate 
than  those  in  town,  a  fact  which  I  have  fre- 
quently discussed  with  architects,  and  I  had 
been  met  in  just  this  way  at  many  stations 
within  a  radius  of  fifty  miles  of  New  York,  and 
carried  to  houses  whose  chimneys  were  provoca- 
tive of  wrath  and  indignation  in  their  owners. 

This  was  the  first  week  in  October.  There  was 
just  zest  enough  in  the  air  to  make  a  top  coat 
comfortable.  The  team  of  blacks  spoke  well  for 
Miss  Hollister's  stable,  and  the  liveried  driver 
kept  them  moving  steadily,  but  eased  the  pace  as 
we  rose  on  the  frequent  slopes  to  the  shoulders 
of  pleasant  hills.  The  immediate  neighborhood 
into  which  we  were  wending  was  unknown  to 
me,  though  I  saw  familiar  landmarks.  I  am  not 
one  to  quibble  over  the  efforts  of  man  to  supple- 
ment the  work  of  nature,  so  that  I  confess  with- 
out shame  that  the  Croton  lakes,  to  my  cockney 
eye,  merge  flawlessly  into  this  landscape.  It  is 
not  for  me  to  raise  the  cry  of  utilitarianism 
against  these  saucerfuls  of  blue  water,  merely 
because  the  fluid  thus  caught  and  held  bubbles 
and  sparkles  later  in  the  taps  of  the  Manhat- 
taners.  Early  frosts  had  already  wrought  their 
miracle  in  the  foliage,  and  the  battle-banners  of 

37 

347738 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

winter's  vanguard  flashed  along  the  horizons.  I 
rejoiced  that  my  business,  vexatious  enough  in 
many  ways,  yet  afforded  me  so  charming  an 
outing  as  this. 

Presently  we  climbed  a  hill  that  shouldered 
its  way  well  above  its  fellows  and  came  out  upon 
a  broad  ridge,  where  we  entered  at  once  a  noble 
gateway  set  in  an  old  stone  wall,  and  struck  off 
smartly  along  a  fine  bit  of  macadam.  The  house, 
the  driver  informed  me,  was  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
from  the  gate.  The  way  led  through  a  wild 
woodland  in  which  elms  and  maples  predomi- 
nated; and  before  this  had  grown  monotonous 
we  came  abruptly  upon  an  Italian  garden,  be- 
yond which  rose  the  house.  I  knew  it  at  once  for 
one  of  Pepperton's  sound  performances;  Pepper- 
ton  is  easily  our  best  man  in  domestic  Tudor, 
and  the  whole  setting  of  Hopefield  Manor,  the 
sunken  garden,  the  superb  view,  the  billowing 
fields  and  woodlands  beyond,  all  testified  to  a 
taste  which  no  ignorant  owner  had  thwarted. 
The  house  was  Tudor,  but  in  no  servile  sense:  it 
was  also  Pepperton.  I  lifted  my  eyes  with  im- 
mediate professional  interest  to  the  chimney- 
pots on  the  roof.  It  occurred  to  me  on  the 
instant  that  I  had  never  before  been  called  to 
retouch  any  of  Pepperton's  work.  Pep  knew  as 
much  as  I  about  flue-construction;  I  had  an  im- 

38 


I    FALL   INTO   A    BRIAR   PATCH 


mense  respect  for  Pep,  and  as  my  specializing  in 
chimneys  had  been  a  subject  of  frequent  chaff- 
ing between  us,  I  anticipated  with  a  chuckle 
the  pleasure  I  should  have  later  in  telling  him 
that  at  last  one  of  his  flues  had  required  my 
services. 

My  good  opinion  of  Miss  Hollister  did  not 
diminish  as  I  stepped  within  the  broad  hall. 
Houses  have  their  own  manner  of  speech,  and 
Hopefield  Manor  spoke  to  all  the  senses  in 
accents  of  taste  and  refinement.  A  servant  took 
my  bag  and  ushered  me  into  a  charming  library. 
A  fire  smouldered  lazily  in  the  great  fireplace; 
there  was,  in  the  room,  the  faintest  scent  of 
burnt  wood;  but  the  smoke  rose  in  the  flue  in  a 
perfectly  mannerly  fashion,  and  on  thrusting  in 
my  hand  I  felt  a  good  draught  of  air.  I  instinc- 
tively knelt  on  the  hearth  and  peered  up,  but 
saw  nothing  unworkmanlike:  Pepperton  was  not 
a  fellow  to  leave  obvious  mistakes  behind  him. 
But  possibly  thas  was  not  one  of  the  recalcitrant 
fireplaces  I  had  been  called  to  inspect;  and  I  rose 
and  was  continuing  my  enjoyment  of  the  beau- 
tiful room,  when  I  became  conscious,  by  rather 
curious  and  mixed  processes  not  wholly  of  the 
eye,  that  a  young  woman  had  drawn  back  the 
light  portieres  —  they  were  dark  brown,  with 
borders  of  burnt  orange  —  and  stood  gravely 

39 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

gazing  at  me.    She  held  the  curtains  apart  — 
they  made,  indeed,  a  kind  of  frame  for  her;  but 


as  our  eyes  met  she  advanced  at  once  and  spoke 
my  name. 

;<You  are  Mr.  Ames.  My  aunt  expected  you. 
I  regret  to  say  that  she  is  not  in  the  house  just 
now,  but  she  will  doubtless  return  for  tea.  I  am 
her  niece.  Won't  you  sit  down?" 

As  she  found  a  seat  for  herself,  I  made  bold  to 
survey  her  with  some  particularity.  She  carried 

40 


I    FALL    INTO   A    BRIAR   PATCH 


her  fine  height  with  beautiful  dignity.  She  was  a 
creature  of  grace,  and  it  was  a  grace  of  strength, 
the  suppleness  and  ease  that  mark  our  later  out- 
door American  woman.  She  could  do  her  miles 
over  these  hills,  —  I  was  sure  of  that.  Her  fine 
olive  face,  crowned  with  dark  hair,  verified  the 
impression  I  had  gathered  from  Jewett,  that  she 
was  a  woman  of  cultivation.  She  had  read  the 
poets;  Dante  and  Petrarch  spoke  from  her  eyes. 
Cecilia  was  no  bad  name  for  her;  she  suggested 
heavenly  harmonies!  And  as  for  Jewett's  story 
of  Wiggins's  infatuation,  I  was  content:  if  this 
was  the  face  that  had  shattered  the  frowning 
towers  of  Wiggins's  Ilium  and  sent  him  to  brood 
disconsolate  upon  his  broad  acres  in  Dakota,  my 
heart  went  out  to  him,  for  his  armor  had  been 
pierced  by  arrows  worthy  of  its  metal. 

She  was  talking,  meanwhile,  of  the  day  and 
its  buoyant  air  and  of  the  tapestries  hung  in  the 
woodlands,  in  a  voice  deep  with  rare  intimations 
of  viol  chords. 

"It's  very  quiet  here.  It  doesn't  seem  pos- 
sible that  we  are  so  near  the  city.  My  aunt 
chose  the  place  with  care,  and  she  made  no  mis- 
take about  it.  Yes;  the  house  was  built  by  Mr. 
Pepperton,  but  not  for  us.  My  aunt  bought  it 
of  the  estate  of  the  gentleman  who  built  it.  This 
will  be  her  first  winter  here." 

41 


'THE  SIEGE  OP  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

She  made  no  reference  to  the  object  of  my 
visit,  and  I  wondered  if  she  knew  just  how  I 
came  there.  A  man-servant  wheeled  in  a  port- 
able tea-table  and  placed  it  beside  a  particular 
chair,  lighted  the  lamp  under  the  kettle,  and 
silently  departed.  And  with  the  stage  thus  dis- 
posed Miss  Hollister  herself  appeared.  She 
greeted  me  without  surprise  and  much  as  she 
might  have  spoken  to  any  guest  in  her  house.  I 
had  sometimes  been  treated  as  though  I  were 
the  agent  of  a  decorator's  shop,  or  a  delinquent 
plumber,  by  the  people  whom  I  served ;  but  Miss 
Hollister  and  her  niece  established  me  upon  a 
plane  that  was  wholly  social.  I  was  made  to  feel 
that  it  was  the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world 
for  me  to  be  there,  having  tea,  with  no  business 
ahead  of  me  but  to  be  agreeable.  The  fact  that  I 
had  come  to  correct  the  distemper  of  their  flues 
was  utterly  negligible.  I  remembered  with  satis- 
faction that  I  had  journeyed  from  town  in  a  new 
business  suit  that  made  the  best  of  my  attenuated 
figure,  and  I  will  not  deny  that  I  felt  at  ease. 

Miss  Hollister  talked  briskly  as  she  made  the 
tea. 

"I  was  over  at  the  kennels  when  you  came.  I 
believe  the  kennel-master  is  a  rascal,  Cecilia. 
I  have  no  opinion  of  him  whatever." 

"He  was  highly  recommended,"  replied  the 
42 


I    FALL   INTO   A   BRIAR   PATCH 


niece.  "It's  not  his  fault  that  the  fox  terriers 
were  sick." 

"I  dare  say  it  is  n't,"  said  the  old  lady,  mea- 
suring the  tea;  "but  it's  his  fault  that  he 
whipped  one  of  those  Cuban  hounds,  —  I  'm 
sure  he  whipped  her.  The  poor  beast  was  afraid 
to  crawl  out  when  I  called  her  this  afternoon." 

"We  were  warned  against  those  dogs,  Aunt 
Octavia ;  but  I  must  admit  that  they  have  lovely 
eyes." 

Miss  Cecilia's  manner  toward  her  aunt  left 
nothing  to  be  desired;  it  was  wholly  deferential 
and  kind,  and  her  dignity,  I  surmised,  was  equal 
to  any  emergency  that  might  rise  between  them. 

"Do  you  ever  shoot  behind  traps?"  demanded 
Miss  Hollister  abruptly. 

The  question  surprised  me.  I  did  not  shoot 
behind  traps  or  anywhere  else,  for  that  matter; 
but  it  delighted  me  to  find  that  her  unusual 
interests,  as  she  had  touched  upon  them  at  the 
Asolando,  were  part  of  a  consistent  scheme  of 
life.  She  talked  of  her  experiments  with  differ- 
ent guns  and  traps,  her  arms  folded,  her  eyes 
reverting  occasionally  to  the  kettle.  It  was  all  in 
the  shells,  she  said.  Before  she  had  begun  filling 
her  own  cartridges  she  had  no  end  of  trouble. 

"It  is  not  necessary  for  you  to  take  tea  if  you 
don't  care  for  it,  Mr.  Ames,"  she  said,  as  I  rose 

43 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

and  handed  the  first  cup  to  Cecilia.  "If  you  will 
touch  the  bell  at  your  elbow  you  may  have 
liquids  of  quite  another  sort.  It  may  interest 
you  to  know  that  this  temperance  wave  that  is 
sweeping  the  country  does  not  interest  me  in  the 
least.  Our  great  Americans  of  the  old  times  were 
gentlemen  who  took  their  liquor  with  no  cow- 
ardly fear  of  public  censure.  You  will  find  my 
sideboard  well  stocked  after  the  fashion  of  old 
times;  and  I  have  with  my  own  hand  placed  in 
your  room  a  quart  of  Scotch  given  me  at  the 
distillery  four  years  ago  by  its  proprietor,  Lord 
Mertondale.  A  case  of  like  quality  is  yours  at 
any  moment  you  choose  to  press  the  button  at 
the  head  of  your  bed." 

"You  are  most  generous,  Miss  Hollister.  Tea 
will  suffice  for  the  moment.  It  is  fitting  that  I 
should  take  it  here,  it  having  been  a  weakness 
for  tea  as  well  as  curiosity  and  chance  that  threw 
me  in  your  way  at  the  Asolando." 

'That  absurd,  that  preposterous  hole  in  the 
wall!" 

She  put  down  her  cup  and  faced  me,  continu- 
ing: "Mr.  Ames,  I  will  not  deny  that  if  it  had  not 
been  for  General  Glendenning's  cordial  indorse- 
ment of  you,  and  the  further  fact  that  I  had  met 
your  late  father,  I  should  not  have  invited  you 
to  my  house  on  the  occasion  to  which  you  refer. 

44 


I    FALL   INTO   A    BRIAR   PATCH 


My  contempt  for  the  Asolando  and  the  things 
it  stands  for  is  beyond  such  language  as  a  lady 
may  use  before  the  young." 

I  laughed  at  her  earnestness;  but  on  turning 
toward  Miss  Cecilia  I  saw  that  she  was  placidly 
stirring  her  cup.  It  might  be  that  one  was  not 
expected  to  manifest  amusement  in  Miss  Hollis- 
ter's  utterances;  and  I  was  anxious  to  adjust 
myself  to  the  proper  key  in  my  intercourse,  no 
matter  how  brief  it  might  be,  with  this  remark- 
able old  lady. 

In  my  embarrassment  I  rose  and  offered  the 
bread  and  butter  to  Cecilia,  who  declined  it. 
The  austerity  of  her  rejection  rather  unnerved  me. 

"To  think,  that  with  all  the  opportunities  for 
adventure  that  offer  in  this  day  and  generation, 
any  one  should  waste  time  on  the  idiotic  worship 
of  a  lot  of  silly  moulders  of  literary  patisserie !  It 
is  beyond  me,  Mr.  Ames,  and  when  I  recall  that 
your  late  father  commanded  a  cavalry  regiment 
in  the  Civil  War,  I  fall  back  upon  the  privilege 
of  my  age  to  beg  that  you  will  hereafter  give  the 
Asolando  a  wide  berth." 

"I  assure  you,  Miss  Hollister,  that  I  have  no 
wish  to  become  an  habitue  of  the  place.  And  yet 
you  will  pardon  me  if  I  repeat  that,  but  for  it,  I 
should  not  now  be  enjoying  the  hospitality  of 
Hopefield  Manor." 

45 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

She  lifted  her  head  from  her  cup  and  bowed; 
but  I  was  immediately  interested  in  the  fact  that 
her  niece  was  speaking. 

"I  think  Aunt  Octavia  is  hard  on  the  Aso- 
lando,"  she  was  saying.  "Aunt  Octavia  is  inter- 
ested in  the  revival  of  romance,  and  romance 
without  poetry  seems  to  me  wholly  impossible. 
The  Asolando  makes  no  pretensions  to  be  more 
than  an  incident  in  a  real  movement  whose  aim 
is  the  diffusion  of  poetic  fire,  —  it  is  merely  a 
shrine  where  the  divine  lamp  is  never  allowed  to 
fail  or  falter." 

"And  if,  Cecilia  Hollister,  you  think  that 
sandwiches  named  for  Browning's  poems  or  mac- 
aroons dedicated  to  Walter  Pater  can  assist 
foolish  virgins  in  keeping  their  lamps  filled, 
I  give  you  the  word  of  an  old  woman  that  you 
are  in  danger  of  a  complete  loss  of  your  mind. 
The  age  is  decadent,  and  I  know  no  better 
way  of  restoring  the  race  to  its  ancient  vim  and 
energy  than  by  sending  men  back  to  the  camp 
and  field  or  to  sail  the  high  seas  in  new  armadas. 
The  men  of  this  age  have  become  a  lot  of  sordid 
shopkeepers,  and  to  my  moral  sense  the  looting 
of  cities  is  far  more  honorable  than  the  creation 
of  trusts  and  the  manipulation  of  prices,  though 
I  cannot  deny  that  but  for  my  late  father's  zeal 
in  destroying  his  competitors  in  the  baby-buggy 

46 


I    FALL   INTO   A    BRIAR   PATCH 


business  we  might  not  now  be  enjoying  the  deli- 
cate fragrance  of  caravan  tea." 

I  continued  to  flounder  in  my  anxiety  to 
determine  just  how  Miss  Hollister  wished  to  be 
taken.  She  spoke  with  the  utmost  seriousness  and 
with  the  earnestness  of  deep  conviction.  If  the 
aims  of  the  Asolando  were  absurd,  what  might  be 
said  of  the  declarations  of  this  old  lady  in  favor 
of  a  return  to  the  age  of  sword  and  buckler! 

I  again  turned  to  Cecilia,  thinking  that  I 
should  find  a  twinkle  in  her  eye  that  might  solve 
the  riddle  and  make  easier  my  responses  to  her 
aunt's  appeals.  Her  reply  did  not  help  me 
greatly :- 

"I  assure  you,  Mr.  Ames,  that  the  Asolando  is 
a  very  harmless  place,  and  that  as  a  matter  of 
fact  its  aims  are  wholly  consonant  with  those 
of  Aunt  Octavia.  I  myself  served  there  for  a 
time,  and  those  were  among  the  most  delightful 
days  of  my  life." 

"And  you  might  still  be  handing  about  the 
Rossetti  eclairs  in  that  smothery  little  place  if  I 
had  not  rescued  you  from  your  bondage.  I  assure 
you,  Mr.  Ames,  that  my  niece  is  a  perfectly 
healthy  young  woman,  to  whom  all  such  rubbish 
is  really  abhorrent." 

I  expected  Miss  Cecilia  to  rouse  at  this;  but 
she  ignored  her  aunt's  fling,  saying  merely,  — 

47 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

"There  are  times  when  I  miss  the  Asolando." 

"Mr.  Ames,"  began  Miss  Octavia  presently 
in  her  crisp,  direct  fashion,  which  had  the  effect 
of  leading  me,  in  my  anxiety  to  appear  ready 
with  answers,  to  take  a  flattering  view  of  my  own 
courage  and  resourcefulness,  —  "Mr.  Ames,  are 
you  equal  to  the  feat  of  swimming  a  moat  under 
a  shattering  fire  from  the  castle?" 

"I  have  every  reason  to  think  I  am,  Miss 
Hollister,"  I  replied  modestly. 

"And  if  a  white  hand  waved  to  you  from  the 
grilled  window  of  the  lonely  tower,  would  you 
ride  on  indifferently  or  pause  and  thunder  at 
the  gate?" 

"White  hands  have  never  waved  to  me,  save 
occasionally  when  I  have  gone  a-riding  in  the 
Sixth  Avenue  elevated,  but  it  is  my  honest 
belief  that  my  sword  would  promptly  leave  its 
scabbard  if  the  hand  ever  waved  from  the  ivied 
tower." 

She  nodded  her  pleasure  in  this  avowal.  For 
a  chimney-doctor  I  was  doing  well.  In  fact,  as  I 
submitted  to  Miss  Octavia's  examination,  I  felt 
equal  to  charging  a  brigade  single-handed. 
Something  about  the  woman  made  it  possible 
and  pleasant  to  be  absurd. 

"If  a  king  or  an  emperor  of  Europe  should  ask 
you  to  inspect  his  chimneys,  would  you  be  con- 

48 


I    FALL    INTO   A    BRIAR   PATCH 


tent  to  perform  your  service  in  the  most  expedi- 
tious and  professional  manner  and  depart  with 
a  nominal  fee?" 

"Decidedly  not,  Miss  Hollister.  On  the  other 
hand  I  should  nurse  the  job  for  all  it  was  worth, 
plunder  the  public  treasury,  explore  the  dun- 
geons, make  love  to  the  princesses,  and  free  the 
rightful  heir  to  the  throne  from  his  cell  beneath 
the  bosom  of  the  lake." 

My  friends  at  the  Hare  and  Tortoise  would 
have  heard  this  avowal  with  some  surprise,  for 
no  man's  life  had  ever  been  tamer  than  mine.  I 
am  by  nature  timid,  and  fall  but  a  little  short  of 
being  afraid  of  the  dark.  Prayers  for  deliverance 
from  battle,  murder,  and  sudden  death  cannot 
be  too  strongly  expressed  for  me.  My  answer 
had,  however,  pleased  Miss  Octavia,  and  she 
clapped  her  hands  with  pleasure. 

"Cecilia,"  she  cried,  "something  told  me,  that 
afternoon  at  the  Asolando,  that  my  belief  in  the 
potential  seven  was  not  ill-placed,  and  now  you 
see  that  in  introducing  myself  to  Mr.  Ames  at 
the  seventh  table  from  the  door,  in  the  seventh 
shop  from  Fifth  Avenue,  I  was  led  to  a  meeting 
with  a  gentleman  I  had  been  predestined  to 
know." 

As  we  talked  further,  a  servant  appeared  and 
laid  fresh  logs  across  the  still-smouldering  fire. 

49 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

This  I  thought  would  suggest  to  Miss  Hollister 
the  professional  character  of  my  visit;  but  the 
fire  kindled  readily,  the  smoke  rose  freely  in 
the  flue;  and  Miss  Hollister  paid  no  attention  to 
it  other  than  to  ask  the  man  whether  the  fuel  he 
had  taken  from  a  carved  box  at  the  right  of  the 
hearth  was  apple-wood  from  the  upper  orchard 
or  cherry  from  a  tree  which,  it  appeared,  she  had 
felled  herself.  It  was  apple- wood,  the  man  in- 
formed her,  and  she  continued  talking.  The 
merits  of  chain-armor,  I  think  it  was,  that  held 
us  for  half  an  hour,  Cecilia  and  I  listening  with 
respect  to  what,  in  my  ignorance,  seemed  a 
remarkable  fund  of  knowledge  on  this  recondite 
subject. 

'We  dine  at  seven,  Mr.  Ames,  and  you  may 
amuse  yourself  as  you  like  until  that  hour. 
Cecilia,  you  may  order  dinner  in  the  gun-room 
to-night." 

"  Certainly,  Aunt  Octavia." 

Once  more  I  glanced  at  the  girl,  hoping  that 
some  glimmer  in  her  eyes  would  set  me  right  and 
establish  a  common  understanding  and  sym- 
pathy between  us;  but  she  was  moving  out  of  the 
room  at  her  aunt's  side.  The  man  who  had  tended 
the  fire  met  me  in  the  hall  and,  conducting  me 
to  my  room,  suggested  various  offices  that  he 
was  ready  to  perform  for  my  comfort.  The  house 

50 


I   FALL   INTO   A   BRIAR   PATCH 


faced  south,  and  my  windows,  midway  of  the 
east  wing,  afforded  a  fine  view  of  the  hills.  The 
room  was  large  enough  for  a  chamber  of  state, 
and  its  furniture  was  massive.  A  four-poster 
invited  to  luxurious  repose;  half  a  dozen  etch- 
ings by  famous  artists  —  Parrish  and  Van  Elten 
among  them  —  hung  upon  the  walls ;,  and  on  a  table 
beside  the  bed  stood  a  handsome  decanter  and 
glasses,  reinforced  by  the  quart  of  Scotch  which 
Miss  Hollister  had  recommended  for  my  re- 
freshment. 

My  bag  had  been  opened  and  my  things  put 
out,  so  that,  there  being  more  than  an  hour  to 
pass  before  I  need  dress  for  dinner,  I  went  below 
and  explored  the  garden  and  wandered  off  along 
a  winding  path  that  stole  with  charming  fur- 
tiveness  toward  a  venerable  orchard  of  gnarled 
apple  trees.  From  the  height  thus  gained  I 
looked  down  upon  the  house,  and  caught  a 
glimpse  beyond  it  of  one  of  the  chain  of  lakes, 
on  which  the  westering  sun  glinted  goldenly. 
Thus  seeing  the  house  from  a  new  angle,  I  was 
impressed  as  I  had  not  been  at  first  by  its  size: 
it  was  a  huge  establishment,  and  I  thought  with 
envy  of  Pepperton,  to  whom  such  ample  com- 
missions were  not  rare.  Pepperton,  I  recalled 
a  little  bitterly,  had  arrived;  whereas  I,  who 
had  enjoyed  exactly  his  own  training  for  the 

51 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

architect's  profession,  had  failed  at  it  and  been 
obliged  to  turn  my  hand  to  the  doctoring  of 
chimneys.  But  I  am  not  a  morbid  person,  and 
it  is  my  way  to  pluck  such  joy  as  I  may  from 
the  fleeting  moment;  and  as  I  reflected  upon 
the  odd  circumstance  of  my  being  there,  my 
spirits  rose.  Miss  Hollister  was  beyond  ques- 
tion a  singular  person,  but  her  whims  were 
amusing.  I  felt  that  she  was  less  cryptic  than 
her  niece,  and  the  thought  of  Cecilia  drove  me 
back  upon  Jewett's  story  of  Wiggins's  interest 
in  that  quarter.  I  resolved  to  write  to  Wiggins 
when  I  got  back  to  town  the  next  day  and  abuse 
him  roundly  for  running  off  without  so  much 
as  good-bye.  That,  most  emphatically,  was 
not  like  dear  old  Wiggins! 

I  had  been  sitting  on  a  stone  wall  watching 
the  shadows  lengthen.  I  rose  now  and  followed 
the  wall  toward  a  highway  along  which  wagons 
and  an  occasional  motor-car  had  passed  during 
my  revery.  The  sloping  pasture  was  rough 
and  frequently  sent  me  along  at  a  trot.  The 
wall  that  marked  the  boundary  at  the  road- 
side was  hidden  by  a  tangle  of  raspberry  bushes, 
and  my  foot  turning  on  a  stone  concealed  in 
the  wild  grasses,  I  fell  clumsily  and  rolled  a 
dozen  yards  into  a  tangle  of  the  berry  bushes. 
As  I  picked  myself  up  I  heard  voices  in  the 

52 


I   FALL   INTO    A    BRIAR    PATCH 


road,  but  should  have  thought  nothing  of  it, 
had  I  not  seen  through  a  break  in  the  vines, 
and  almost  within  reach  of  my  hand,  Cecilia 
Hollister  talking  earnestly  to  some  one  not  yet 
disclosed.  She  washatless,  but  had  flung  a  golf- 
cape  over  her  shoulders.  The  red  scarlet  lining 
of  the  hood  turned  up  about  her  neck  made  an 
effective  setting  for  her  noble  head. 

"Oh,  I  can't  tell  you!  I  can't  help  you!  I 
must  n't  even  appear  to  give  you  any  advan- 
tage. I  went  into  it  with  my  eyes  open,  and 
I  'm  in  honor  bound  not  to  tell  you  anything. 
You  have  said  nothing  —  nothing,  —  remember 
that.  There  is  absolutely  nothing  between  us." 

"But  I  must  say  everything!  I  refuse  to  be 
blinded  by  these  absurd  restrictions,  whatever 
they  are.  It 's  not  fair,  —  it 's  inviting  me  into 
a  game  where  the  cards  are  not  all  on  the  table. 
I  Jve  come  to  make  an  end  of  it!" 

My  hands  had  suffered  by  contact  with  the 
briars,  and  I  had  been  ministering  to  them  with 
my  handkerchief;  but  I  fell  back  upon  the  slope 
in  my  astonishment  at  this  colloquy.  Cecilia 
Hollister  I  had  seen  plainly  enough,  though 
the  man's  back  had  been  toward  me;  but  any- 
where on  earth  I  should  have  known  Wiggins's 
voice.  I  protest  that  it  is  not  my  way  to  be- 
come an  eavesdropper  voluntarily,  but  to  dis- 

53 


THE  SIEGE  OP  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

close  myself  now  was  impossible.  If  it  had  not 
been  Wiggins  —  but  Wiggins  would  never  have 


understood  or  forgiven;  nor  could  I  have  ex- 
plained plausibly  to  Cecilia  Hollister  that  I 
had  not  followed  her  from  the  house  to  spy  upon 
her.  I  should  have  made  the  noise  of  an  in- 
vading army  if  I  had  attempted  to  effect  an 
exit  by  creeping  out  through  the  windrow  of  crisp 

54 


I    FALL   INTO   A    BRIAR    PATCH 


leaves  in  which  I  lay;  and  to  turn  back  and 
ascend  the  slope  the  way  I  had  come  would 
have  been  to  advertise  my  presence  to  the  fig- 
ures in  the  road.  There  seemed  nothing  for 
me  but  to  keep  still  and  hope  that  this  discus- 
sion between  Cecilia  Hollister  and  Hartley 
Wiggins  would  not  be  continued  within  earshot. 
To  my  relief  they  moved  a  trifle  farther  on;  but 
I  still  heard  their  voices. 

"I  cannot  listen  to  you.  Now  that  I  'm  com- 
mitted I  cannot  honorably  countenance  you  at 
all;  and  I  can  explain  nothing.  I  came  here 
to  meet  you  only  to  tell  you  this.  You  must  go 
—  please!  And  do  not  attempt  to  see  me  in 
this  way  again." 

I  was  grateful  that  Wiggins's  voice  sank  so 
low  in  his  reply  that  I  did  not  hear  it;  but  I 
knew  that  he  was  pleading  hard.  Then  a  motor 
flashed  by,  and  when  the  whir  of  its  passing 
had  ceased,  the  voices  were  inaudible;  but  a 
moment  later  I  heard  a  light  quick  step  be- 
yond the  wall,  and  Cecilia  passed  hurriedly, 
her  face  turned  toward  the  house.  The  cape 
was  drawn  tightly  about  her  shoulders,  and  she 
walked  with  her  head  bowled. 

I  breathed  a  sigh  of  relief,  and  when  I  felt 
safe  from  detection  climbed  the  slope. 

Pausing  on  the  crest  to  survey  the  landscape, 

55 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

I  saw  a  man,  wearing  a  derby  hat  and  a  light 
top-coat,  leaning  against  a  fence  that  inclosed 
a  pasture.  As  I  glanced  in  his  direction  he 
moved  away  hastily  toward  the  road  below. 
The  feeling  of  being  watched  is  not  agreeable, 
and  I  could  not  account  for  him.  As  he  passed 
out  of  sight,  still  another  man  appeared,  emerg- 
ing from  a  strip  of  woodland  farther  on.  Even 
through  the  evening  haze  I  should  have  said 
that  he  was  a  gentleman.  The  two  men  ap- 
parently bore  no  relation  to  each  other,  though 
they  were  walking  in  the  same  direction,  bound, 
I  judged,  for  the  highway  below.  I  had  an  un- 
comfortable feeling  that  they  had  both  been 
observing  me,  though  for  what  purpose  I  could 
not  imagine.  Then  once  more,  just  as  I  was 
about  to  enter  the  Italian  garden  from  a  fal- 
low field  that  hung  slightly  above  it,  a  third 
man  appeared  as  mysteriously  as  though  he 
had  sprung  from  the  ground,  and  ran  at  a  sharp 
dog-trot  along  the  fence,  headed,  like  the  others, 
for  the  road.  In  the  third  instance  the  stranger 
undoubtedly  took  pains  to  hide  his  face,  but 
he,  too,  was  well  dressed  and  wore  a  top-coat 
and  a  fedora  hat  of  current  style. 

I  did  not  know  why  these  gentlemen  were 
ranging  the  neighborhood  or  what  object  they 
had  in  view;  but  their  several  appearances  had 

56 


I    FALL    INTO    A   BRIAR    PATCH 


interested  me,  and  I  went  on  into  the  house 
well  satisfied  that  events  of  an  unusual  char- 
acter were  likely  to  mark  my  visit  to  the  home 
of  Miss  Octavia  Hollister. 


IV 

WE   DINE   IN   THE    GUN-ROOM 

CECILIA  sat  reading  alone  when  I  entered  the 
library  shortly  before  the  dinner-hour.  She  put 
down  her  book  and  we  fell  into  fitful  talk. 

"I  took  a  walk  after  tea.  I  always  feel  that 
sunsets  are  best  seen  from  the  fields;  you  can't 
quite  do  them  justice  from  windows,"  she  be- 
gan. 

She  seemed  preoccupied,  but  this  may  have 
been  the  interpretation  of  my  conscience,  whose 
twinges  reminded  me  unpleasantly  of  my  pre- 
cipitation into  the  briar  bushes  at  the  foot  of 
the  pasture,  where  I  had  witnessed  her  meet- 
ing with  Wiggins.  My  admiration  gained  new 
levels.  Her  black  evening  gown  became  her; 
a  band  of  velvet  circled  her  throat,  emphasiz- 
ing its  firm  whiteness.  It  seemed  incredible 
that  I  had  seen  her  so  recently,  in  the  filmy  dusk, 
talking  with  so  much  earnestness  to  Hartley 
Wiggins.  It  was  my  impression,  gained  from 
the  few  sentences  I  had  overheard  by  the  road, 
that  she  did  not  repulse  him,  but  that  some 
mysterious,  difficult  barrier  kept  them  apart. 

58 


WE   DINE   IN   THE   GuN-ROOM 


Where,  I  wondered,  was  Wiggins  now,  and  what 
were  to  be  the  further  incidents  of  this  singu- 
lar affair? 

While  we  waited  for  Miss  Hollister  to  appear, 
she  continued  to  speak  of  her  joy  in  the  hills.  It 
is  not  every  one  who  can  admire  a  sunset  with 
sincerity,  but  she  conveyed  the  spirit  of  the 
phenomena  that  had  attended  the  lowering  of 
the  bright  targe  of  day  in  terms  and  tones  that 
were  delightfully  natural  and  convincing.  And 
yet  the  far-away  look  in  her  eyes  suggested  in- 
evitably the  scene  I  had  witnessed  and  the 
phrases  I  had  caught  by  the  roadside.  Wiggins 
was  in  her  recollection  of  the  glowing  landscape, 
—  I  was  confident  of  this;  and  poor  Wiggins 
was  even  now  wandering  these  hills,  no  doubt, 
brooding  upon  his  troubles  under  the  clear 
October  stars. 

Dinner  was  announced  the  moment  Miss 
Hollister  entered,  and  I  walked  out  between 
them.  Miss  Octavia  Hollister  was  a  surpris- 
ing person,  but  in  nothing  was  she  so  delight- 
fully wayward  as  in  the  gowns  she  wore.  My 
ignorance  of  such  matters  is  immeasurable,  but 
I  fancy  that  she  designed  her  own  raiment  and 
that  her  ideas  were  thereupon  carried  out  by  a 
tailor  of  skill.  At  the  Asolando  and  when  we 
had  met  at  tea  in  her  own  house,  she  had  worn 

59 


THE  SIEGE  OP  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

the  severest  of  tailored  gowns,  with  short  skirt 
and  a  coat  into  whose  pockets  she  was  fond  of 
thrusting  her  hands.  To-night  the  material 
was  lavender  silk  trimmed  in  white,  but  the 
skirt  had  not  lengthened,  and  over  a  white  silk 
waist  she  wore  a  kind  of  cut-away  coat  that 
matched  the  skirt.  An  aigrette  in  her  lovely 
white  hair  contributed  a  piquant  note  to  the 
whole  impression.  As  we  passed  down  the  hall 
she  talked  with  great  animation  of  the  Hague 
Tribunal,  just  then  holding  a  prominent  place 
in  the  newspapers  for  some  reason  that  has  es- 
caped me. 

"The  whole  thing  is  absurd;  perfectly  ab- 
surd! I  know  of  nothing  that  would  contribute 
more  to  human  enjoyment  than  a  real  war  be- 
tween Germany  and  England.  The  Hague  idea 
is  pure  sentimentalism,  —  if  sentimentalism  can 
ever  be  said  to  be  pure.  I  will  go  further  and  say 
that  I  consider  it  positively  immoral." 

This  new  view  of  the  matter  left  me  stam- 
mering. Cecilia,  I  saw,  had  no  intention  of 
helping  me  over  these  difficult  hurdles  that  were 
constantly  popping  up  in  my  conversations  with 
her  aunt.  This  delightful  old  lady  in  lavender, 
the  mistress  of  a  house  whose  luxury  and  peace 
were  antipodal  to  any  hint  of  war,  continued  to 
baffle  me.  She  had  ordered  dinner  in  the  gun- 

60 


WE   DINE    IN    THE    GUN-ROOM 


room,  but  I  thought  this  merely  a  turn  of  her 
humor ;  and  I  was  taken  aback  when  she  led  the 
way  into  a  low,  heavily  raftered  room,  where 
electric  sconces  of  an  odd  type  were  thrust  at 
irregular  intervals  along  the  walls,  which  were 
otherwise  hung  with  arms  of  many  sorts  in  or- 
derly combinations.  They  were  not  the  litter  of 
antique  shops,  I  saw  in  a  hasty  glance,  but  rifles 
and  guns  of  the  latest  patterns,  and  beside  the 
sideboard  stood  a  gun-rack  and  a  cabinet  which 
I  assumed  contained  still  other  and  perhaps 
deadlier  weapons.  At  one  end  of  the  room,  and 
just  behind  Miss  Hollister,  was  a  sunburst  of 
swords,  which  gleamed  with  a  kind  of  mockery 
behind  her  white  head. 

The  small  round  table  was  conventionally 
set,  but  this  only  added  to  the  grimness  of  the 
encompassing  arsenal.  A  bowl  of  crimson  roses 
in  the  centre  of  the  snowy  cloth  would  ordi- 
narily have  mitigated  the  effect  of  the  grim 
walls ;  but  I  confess  that  the  color  reminded  me 
a  little  too  sombrely  of  the  ugly  business  for 
which  this  steel  had  been  designed.  But  for  the 
presence  of  Miss  Cecilia,  who  was  essentially 
typical  of  our  twentieth-century  American 
wpman,  I  think  I  might  readily  have  yielded  to 
the  illusion  that  I  was  the  guest  of  some  eccen- 
tric chatelaine  who  had  invited  me  to  dine  with 

61 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

her  in  a  bastion  of  her  fortress  before  ordering 
me  to  some  chamber  of  horrors  for  execution. 

There  seemed  to  be  no  reason  why  one  of  those 
keen  blades  on  the  wall  might  not  find  its  way 
through  my  ribs  between  a  highly  satisfactory 
plate  of  potage  a  la  tortue  and  a  bit  of  sea-bass 
that  would  have  honored  any  kitchen  in  the 
land.  No  reference  was  made  to  the  character 
of  the  room;  I  felt,  in  fact,  that  Cecilia  rather 
pleaded  with  her  eyes  that  I  should  make  no 
reference  to  it.  And  Miss  Hollister  remarked 
quite  casually  as  though  in  comment  upon  my 
thoughts:  — 

"Consistency  has  buried  its  thousands  and 
habit  its  tens  of  thousands.  We  should  live, 
Mr.  Ames,  for  the  changes  and  chances  of  this 
troubled  life.  Between  an  opera-box  and  a  villa 
at  Newport  many  of  my  best  friends  have  per- 
ished." 

"I  have  thought  myself  that  Thoreau  had 
the  right  idea,"  —  I  began  hopefully;  but  she 
raised  her_finger  warningly. 

"Mr.  Ames,  the  mention  of  Henry  David 
Thoreau  is  wholly  distasteful  to  me.  A  man 
who  will  deliberately  choose  to  whittle  lead- 
pencils  for  chipmunks  and  write  a  book  about  a 
moist  sand-pile  like  Cape  Cod  arouses  no  sym- 
pathy in  me.  And  these  well-meaning  women 

62 


WE   DINE   IN   THE   GUN-ROOM 


who  are  forever  gathering  autumn  leaves,  or 
who  tire  you  in  spring  by  telling  you  they  have 
found  the  first  pussy-willow  feathering,  and  who 
make  all  Nature  odious  by  their  general  goo- 
goo  ings,  bore  me  to  death.  There  is  no  such 
thing  possible  as  the  simple  life.  I  give  you  my 
word  for  it  that  it  is  only  in  the  most  complex 
existence  that  the  spirit  of  man  can  thrive." 

I  am  only  a  chimney-doctor;  I  have  never 
been  able  to  make  any  headway  in  discussing 
things  aesthetic,  sentimental  or  spiritual  with  per- 
sons of  sound  conviction  in  such  matters.  A 
bishop  with  whom  I  once  roamed  the  English 
cathedrals  confessed  to  me  his  sincere  belief  that 
in  the  days  of  the  inquisition  the  gridiron  would 
have  been  my  rightful  portion.  I  was  fearful 
lest  my  hostess  should  suggest  the  mediaeval 
church  as  a  topic,  and  this  I  knew  would  be 
disastrous.  As  an  abbess  she  would,  I  fancied, 
have  ruled  with  an  iron  hand.  But  with  start- 
ling abruptness  she  put  down  her  fork,  and  bend- 
ing her  wonderfully  direct  gaze  upon  me,  asked 
a  question  that  caused  me  to  strangle  on  a  bit  of 
asparagus. 

"I  imagine,  Mr.  Ames,  that  you  are  a  mem- 
ber of  some  of  the  better  clubs  in  town.  If  by 
any  chance  you  belong  to  the  Hare  and  Tor- 
toise, —  the  name  of  which  has  always  pleased 

63 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

me,  —  do  you  by  any  chance  happen  to  enjoy 
the  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Hartley  Wiggins?" 

Cecilia  lifted  her  head.  I  saw  that  she  had 
been  as  startled  as  I.  It  crossed  my  mind  that 
a  denial  of  any  acquaintance  with  Wiggins 
might  best  serve  him  in  the  circumstances;  but 
I  am  not,  I  hope,  without  a  sense  of  shame,  and 
I  responded  promptly :  — 

"Yes,  I  know  him  well.  We  are  old  friends. 
I  always  see  a  good  deal  of  him  during  the  win- 
ter. His  summers  are  spent  usually  on  his  ranch 
in  the  west.  We  dined  together  two  days  ago 
at  the  Hare  and  Tortoise,  just  before  he  left 
for  the  west." 

"You  will  pardon  me  if  I  say  that  it  is  wholly 
to  his  credit  that  he  has  forsworn  the  profes- 
sions and  identified  himself  with  the  honorable 
calling  of  the  husbandman." 

"We  met  Mr.  Wiggins  while  traveling  abroad 
last  summer,"  interposed  Cecilia,  meeting  my 
eyes  quite  frankly. 

"Met  him!  Did  you  say  met  him,  Cecilia? 
On  the  contrary  we  found  him  waiting  for  us 
at  the  dock  the  morning  we  sailed,"  corrected 
Miss  Hollister,  "and  we  never  lost  him  a  day 
in  three  months^  of  rapid  travel.  I  had  never 
met  him  before,  but  I  cannot  deny  that  he 
made  himself  exceedingly  agreeable.  If,  as  I 

64 


WE   DINE   IN   THE   GUN-ROOM 


suspected,  he  had  deliberately  planned  to  travel 
on  the  same  steamer  with  my  two  nieces,  I  have 
only  praise  for  his  conduct,  for  in  these  days, 
Mr.  Ames,  it  warms  my  heart  to  find  young 
men  showing  something  of  the  old  chivalric 
ardor  in  their  affairs  of  the  heart." 

"I  'm  sure  Mr.  Wiggins  made  himself  very 
agreeable,"  remarked  Cecilia  colorlessly. 

"For  myself,"  retorted  Miss  Hollister,  "I 
should  speak  even  more  strongly.  He  re- 
peatedly served  us  with  tact  and  delicacy;  and 
I  recall  with  the  greatest  satisfaction  his  vig- 
orous chastisement  of  our  courier  in  Cologne, 
where  that  person  was  found  to  have  treated 
us  in  the  most  treacherous  manner.  He  had, 
in  fact,  in  collusion  with  an  inn-keeper,  con- 
nived at  the  loss  of  our  baggage  to  delay  our 
departure,  even  after  I  had  pronounced  the 
cathedral  the  greatest  architectural  monstros- 
ity in  Europe." 

"Oh,  Aunt  Octavia,  you  did  n't  really  mean 
that!"  And  Cecilia  laughed  for  the  first  time. 
Her  color  had  risen,  and  her  dark  eyes  lit  with 
pleasure. 

"I  had  formed  so  high  an  opinion  of  Mr. 
Wiggins,"  Miss  Octavia  continued,  "that  I 
learned  with  sincerest  regret  that  his  ancestors 
were  Tories  and  took  no  part  in  the  struggle  for 

65 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

American  independence.  There  are  times  when 
I  seriously  question  the  wisdom  of  the  colonists 
in  breaking  with  the  mother  country;  but  cer- 
tainly no  man  of  character  in  that  day  could 
have  hesitated  as  to  his  proper  course." 

Then,  as  though  by  intention,  Miss  Hollister 
dropped  upon  the  smooth  current  of  our  talk  a 
sentence  that  drove  the  color  from  Cecilia's  face. 
At  once  the  girl  was  cold  again,  and  I  felt  embar- 
rassed and  uncomfortable  that  a  friend  of  mine 
had  been  brought  into  the  conversation  to  my 
befuddlement.  The  situation  was  trying,  but 
in  spite  of  this  it  grew  steadily  more  interest- 
ing. 

"Hezekiah  and  Mr.  Wiggins  were  the  best 
of  friends,"  was  Miss  Hollister's  remark. 

Cecilia's  eyes  were  on  her  plate;  but  her  aunt 
went  on  in  her  blithest  fashion :  — 

"  You  may  not  know  that  Hezekiah  is  another 
niece,  Cecilia's  sister.  She  was  named,  at  my 
suggestion,  for  my  father,  there  being  no  son 
in  the  family,  and  I  trust  that  so  unusual  a 
name  in  a  young  girl  does  not  strike  you  as  in- 
defensible." 

"On  the  contrary,  it  seems  to  me  wholly  re- 
freshing and  delightful.  As  I  recall  the  Sunday- 
school  of  my  youth,  Hezekiah  was  a  monarch 
of  great  authority,  whose  animosity  toward 

66 


WE   DINE   IN   THE   GUN-ROOM 


Sennacherib  was  justified  in  the  fullest  degree. 
The  very  name  bristles  with  spears,  and  is  musi- 
cal with  the  trumpets  of  Israel.  Nothing  would 
make  me  happier  than  to  meet  the  young  lady 
who  bears  this  illustrious  name." 

"As  to  your  knowledge  of  ancient  history, 
Mr.  Ames,"  began  Miss  Hollister,  as  she  helped 
herself  to  the  cheese,  —  sweets,  I  noted,  were 
not  included  in  the  very  ample  meal  I  had  en- 
joyed, —  "it  is  clear  that  you  were  well  taught 
in  your  youth.  I  am  not  surprised,  however, 
for  I  should  have  expected  nothing  less  of  a 
son  of  the  late  General  Ames  of  Hartford.  As 
to  meeting  my  niece  Hezekiah,  I  fear  that  that 
is  at  present  impossible.  While  Cecilia  remains 
with  me,  Hezekiah's  duty  is  to  her  father,  and 
I  must  say  in  all  kindness  that  Hezekiah's  ways, 
like  those  of  Providence  and  the  custom-house, 
are  beyond  my  feeble  understanding.  In  a 
word,  Mr.  Ames,  Hezekiah  is  different." 

"Hezekiah,"  added  Cecilia  with  feeling,  "is 
a  dear. " 

"Please  don't  bring  sentimentalism  to  the 
table! "  cried  Miss  Hollister.  "  Mr.  Wiggins  once 
informed  me  in  a  moment  of  forgetfulness, — 
it  was  at  Fontainebleau,  I  remember,  when  Heze- 
kiah persisted  in  reminding  a  one-armed  French 
colonel  who  was  hanging  about  that  we  named 

67 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

cities  in  America  for  Bismarck,  —  it  was  there 
at  the  inn,  that  Mr.  Wiggins  confided  to  me 
his  belief  that  Hezekiah  bears  a  strong  resem- 
blance to  the  common  or  domestic  peach.  As 
a  single  peach  at  that  place  was  charged  in  the 
bill  at  ten  francs,  the  remark  was  ill-timed,  to 
say  the  least.  But  Mr.  Wiggins  was  so  contrite 
when  I  rebuked  him,  that  I  allowed  him  to  pay 
for  our  luncheon,  —  no  small  matter,  indeed,  for 
Hezekiah's  appetite  is  nothing  if  not  robust." 

The  table-talk  had  yielded  little  light  on  the 
subject  of  Wiggins's  predicament,  whatever  that 
might  be;  but  these  references  to  the  absent 
Hezekiah  had  set  a  troop  of  interrogation  points 
to  dancing  on  the  frontiers  of  my  curiosity.  Miss 
Hollister  had  given  so  many  turns  to  the  con- 
versation that  I  could  reach  no  conclusion  as  to 
her  feeling  toward  Wiggins  or  Hezekiah  Hollis- 
ter; and  as  for  Cecilia,  I  was  unable  to  deter- 
mine whether  she  was  a  prisoner  at  Hopefield 
Manor  or  the  willing  and  devoted  companion  of 
her  aunt. 

In  this  bewildered  state  of  mind,  while  we 
lingered  over  our  coffee,  the  servant  appeared 
with  a  card  for  each  of  the  ladies.  I  saw  Cecilia 
start  as  she  read  the  name. 

"Mr.  Wiggins  !  How  remarkable  that  he 
should  have  appeared  just  as  we  were  speaking 

68 


WE   DINE   IN   THE   GUN-ROOM 


of  him,"  said  Miss  Hollister.  "Be  sure  the  gen- 
tleman is  comfortable  in  the  library,  James. 
We  shall  be  in  at  once.  Mr.  Ames,  you  will  of 
course  be  delighted  to  meet  your  friend  here, 
and  you  will  assist  us  in  dispensing  our  meagre 
hospitality." 


THE   STRANGE   BEHAVIOR   OF   A    CHIMNEY 

THERE  was  no  reason  in  the  world  why  Hart- 
ley Wiggins  should  not  call  upon  two  ladies  liv- 
ing in  Westchester  County,  and  I  must  say  that 
he  appeared  to  advantage  in  Miss  Hollister's 
library. 

He  had  got  into  his  evening  clothes  some- 
where, perhaps  at  a  neighboring  inn,  or  maybe 
at  the  house  of  a  friend;  for  he  could  not 
possibly  have  motored  into  town  and  back 
since  his  interview  with  Cecilia  in  the  highway. 
He  had  impressed  the  clerk  at  the  Hare  and 
Tortoise  with  the  idea  that  he  had  left  New 
York  for  a  long  absence,  and  he  had  apparently 
camped  at  the  gates  of  Hopefield  to  be  near 
Cecilia. 

When  he  had  paid  his  compliments  to  the 
ladies,  he  turned  to  me  with  an  almost  imper- 
ceptible lifting  of  the  brows;  but  he  was  cordial 
enough.  If  he  was  surprised  or  disappointed 
at  seeing  me,  his  manner  did  not  betray  the 
feeling. 

70 


THE  STRANGE  BEHAVIOR  OF  A  CHIMNEY 

"  Glad  to  see  you,  Ames.  Rather  nice  weather, 
this." 

"Even  Dakota  could  n't  do  better,"  I  affirmed 
with  a  grin;  but  he  ignored  the  fling. 

"It  is  quite  remarkable,  Mr.  Wiggins,  that 
you  should  have  appeared  just  when  you  did, 
for  we  had  been  speaking  of  you,  and  I  had 
been  telling  Mr.  Ames  of  our  travels  abroad 
and  in  particular  of  the  thumping  you  very 
properly  gave  our  courier  at  Cologne.  And  I 
shall  not  deny  that  I  mentioned  also  our  brief 
discussion  of  the  peach-crop  at  Fontainebleau." 

Cecilia  stirred  restlessly;  Wiggins  shot  a  glance 
of  inquiry  in  my  direction;  and  I  felt  decidedly 
ill  at  ease.  Miss  Hollister  crossed  to  the  fire- 
place and  poked  the  logs. 

Just  what  part  Hezekiah  Hollister  played  in 
the  situation  was  beyond  me.  If  I  had  not  wit- 
nessed Wiggins's  clandestine  meeting  with  Ce- 
cilia, matters  would  have  been  clearer  to  my 
comprehension ;  but  his  appearance  at  the  house, 
after  the  colloquy  I  had  overheard  from  the 
briar  patch,  was  in  itself  inexplicable.  Cecilia 
was  a  woman,  therefore  to  be  wooed,  and  yet 
she  had  indicated  by  her  words  to  him  that 
the  wooing,  independently  of  her  feeling  and 
inclination,  might  not  go  forward  with  entire 
freedom.  Miss  Hollister's  singular  references  to 

71 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

Hezekiah  —  a  person  about  whom  my  curiosity 
was  now  a  good  deal  aroused  —  added  to  the 
mystery  that  enfolded  the  library. 

"Our  American  peaches  are  not  what  they 
were  in  my  youth.  Cold  storage  destroys  the 
flavor.  I  have  not  tasted  a  decent  peach  for 
twenty  years." 

This  was  pretty  tame,  I  admit;  but  I  felt 
that  I  must  say  something.  Responsive  to  Miss 
Hollister's  energetic  prodding,  the  flames  in  the 
fireplace  leaped  into  the  great  throat  of  the 
chimney  with  a  roar.  She  turned,  her  back  to 
the  blaze,  and  looked  upon  her  guests  benig- 
nantly. 

"If  all  your  flues  draw  like  that  one,  they 
are  not  seriously  in  need  of  doctoring,"  I  re- 
marked, feeling  that  flues  were  a  safer  topic 
than  the  peach-crop. 

"Flues  are  nothing  if  not  erratic,"  replied 
Miss  Hollister.  The  subject  did  not  appear  to 
interest  her;  nor  had  she,  by  the  remotest  sug- 
gestion, referred  to  the  object  of  my  coming. 
I  had  sniffed  vainly  in  the  halls  above  and 
below  for  any  trace  of  the  stale  smoke  which 
usually  greeted  me  at  once  on  my  arrival  at  the 
house  of  a  client.  The  air  of  Hopefield  Manor 
was  as  sweet  as  that  of  a  June  meadow.  Wig- 
gins remarked  to  me  that  I  doubtless  knew  the 

72 


THE  STRANGE  BEHAVIOR  OF  A  CHIMNEY 

Manor  had  been  designed  by  Pepperton,  whom 
we  both  knew  well. 

"This  is  Pep's  masterpiece.  He  need  do 
nothing  better  to  keep  his  grip  at  the  top,"  he 
said. 

"I  consider  it  a  great  privilege  to  be  per- 
mitted to  visit  a  house  designed  by  a  dear 
friend  and  occupied  by  a  lady  peculiarly  fitted 
to  appreciate  and  adorn  it." 

I  thought  rather  well  of  this  as  I  spoke  the 
words;  but  neither  Cecilia  nor  Wiggins  rose  to 
it  as  I  hoped  they  might.  * 

"You  have  a  neat  turn  for  the  direct  com- 
pliment," said  Miss  Hollister  promptly.  "The 
house  was  built,  you  may  not  know,  for  a  manu- 
facturer of  umbrellas,  who  died  before  he  had 
occupied  it,  in  circumstances  I  may  later  dis- 
close to  you;  which  accounts,  Mr.  Ames,  for  that 
figure  of  Cupid  under  a  pink  parasol  on  the 
drawing-room  ceiling.  At  the  first  opportunity 
I  shall  remove  it,  as  baby  Cupids  are  irrecon- 
cilable with  the  militant  love-making  I  admire. 
I  consider  umbrellas  detestable,  and  never  carry 
one  when  I  can  command  a  mackintosh." 

"When  I  'm  on  the  ranch  I  wear  a  slicker," 
said  Wiggins.  "It 's  bullet-proof,  and  that  I 
have  found  at  times  a  decided  advantage." 

We  discussed  mackintoshes  for  at  least  ten 

73 


THE  SIEGE  OP  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

minutes,  with  far  more  sprightliness  than  I  had 
imagined  the  subject  could  evoke.  Then  Miss 
Hollister,  after  a  turn  up  and  down  the  room, 
paused  beside  me. 

"Mr.  Ames,"  she  said,  "would  you  care  to 
join  me  in  a  game  of  billiards?  I  'm  not  in  my 
best  form,  but  I  think  we  might  profitably  knock 
the  balls  for  half  an  hour." 

I  acquiesced  with  alacrity.  I  assumed  it  to 
be  Miss  Hollister's  purpose  to  leave  Cecilia  and 
Wiggins  alone.  I  should  be  rendering  Wiggins 
and  Cecilia  a  service  by  withdrawing,  and  I  was 
glad  of  a  chance  to  escape. 

To  my  infinite  surprise  they  both  protested, 
not  in  mere  polite  murmurs  but  with  consid- 
erable vehemence. 

"It 's  quite  cool  to-night,  and  I  don't  believe 
you  ought  to  use  the  billiard-room  until  the 
plumber  has  fixed  the  radiator,"  said  Cecilia. 

"And  if  you  knew  Mr.  Ames's  game  I  'm 
sure  you  would  n't  care  to  waste  time  on  him," 
piped  Wiggins,  whom  I  had  frequently  van- 
quished in  billiard  bouts  at  the  Hare  and  Tor- 
toise, where,  I  may  say  modestly,  I  had  long 
been  considered  one  of  the  most  formidable  of 
the  club's  players. 

Both  he  and  Cecilia  had  risen,  and  we  stood, 
I  remember,  just  before  the  hearth,  during  this 

74 


THE  STRANGE  BEHAVIOR  OF  A  CHIMNEY 

exchange.  At  this  moment,  a  singular  thing 
happened.  The  fire  that  had  been  sweeping  in 
a  broad  wave-like  curve  into  the  chimney  was 
checked  suddenly.  I  had  repeatedly  marked 
the  admirable  draught,  the  facile  grace  of  the 
flame  as  it  rose  and  vanished.  The  cessation  of 
the  draught  was  unmarked  by  any  of  those  pre- 
monitory symptoms  by  which  a  fire  usually  gives 
warning  of  evil  intentions.  The  upward  current 
of  air  had  ceased  utterly  and  without  apparent 
cause.  We  were  all  aware  of  a  choking,  a  gasping 
in  the  deep  flue,  which  could  not  be  accounted 
for  by  any  natural  stoppage  incident  to  chimneys 
—  the  dislodging  of  masonry,  or  a  packing  of 
soot.  The  former  was  hardly  possible  and  the 
house  was  not  old  enough  to  make  the  latter 
theory  plausible.  From  my  survey  of  the  flue 
on  my  arrival  in  the  afternoon,  I  judged  that 
this  particular  chimney  had  been  little  used. 

The  smoke  now  rolled  out  in  billows  and 
drove  us  back  from  the  hearth.  I  seized  the 
tongs  and  poker  and  began  readjusting  the  logs, 
without,  however,  any  hope  of  correcting  a  diffi- 
culty that  lay  patently  in  the  upper  regions  of 
the  flue  itself.  The  smoke,  after  a  courageous 
effort  to  rise,  encountered  an  obstruction  of 
some  sort  and  ebbed  back  upon  the  hearth  and 
out  into  the  room.  My  efforts  to  stop  the  trouble 

75 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

by  shifting  the  logs  were  futile,  as  I  expected 
them  to  be,  and  I  retreated  quickly,  making,  I 


fear,  no  very  gallant  appearance  as  I  mopped 
my  face  and  eyes. 

"Well,"  exclaimed  Miss  Hollister,  who  had 
rung  for  a  servant  to  open  the  doors  and  win- 
dows, "this  is  certainly  most  extraordinary. 
What  solution  do  you  offer,  Mr.  Ames?" 

"The  matter  requires  investigation.  I  can't 
venture  an  opinion  until  I  have  made  a  thor- 

76 


THE  STRANGE  BEHAVIOR  OF  A  CHIMNEY 

ough  investigation.  The  night  is  perfectly  quiet 
and  the  wind  is  hardly  responsible.  I  think  we 
had  better  abandon  the  room  until  I  can  solve 
this  riddle  in  the  morning." 

The  prompt  opening  of  the  windows  and  doors 
caused  the  slow  dispersion  of  the  smoke,  but  the 
lights  in  the  room  still  shone  dimly  as  through 
a  fog. 

"It 's  beastly,"  ejaculated  Wiggins,  coughing. 
"I  did  n't  suppose  Pepperton  would  put  a  flue 
like  that  into  a  house.  He  ought  to  be  shot." 

"It  is  fortunate,"  said  Miss  Hollister,  "that 
Mr.  Ames  is  on  the  ground.  He  now  has  a  case 
that  will  test  his  most  acute  powers  of  diag- 
nosis." 

The  logs  that  had  burned  so  brightly  before 
the  chimney  choked  still  held  their  flames  stub- 
bornly, and  I  had  advised  against  pouring  water 
upon  them,  fearing  to  crack  the  brick  and  stone- 
work. We  were  about  to  adjourn  to  the  draw- 
ing-room; Miss  Hollister  and  the  others  had 
in  fact  reached  the  door,  leaving  me  alone  be- 
fore the  hearth.  Then,  as  I  stood  half -blinded 
watching  the  smoke  pour  out  into  the  room, 
and  more  puzzled  than  I  had  ever  been  before 
in  any  of  my  employments,  the  chimney,  with 
a  deep  intake  of  breath,  began  drawing  the 
smoke  upward  again;  the  flames  caught  and 

77 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

spread  with  renewed  ardor ;  and  when  the  trio 
still  loitering  in  the  hall  returned  in  answer  to 
my  exclamation  of  surprise,  the  flue  had  recov- 
ered its  composure  and  was  behaving  in  a  sane 
and  normal  manner. 

There  is,  I  imagine,  nothing  pertaining  to 
the  life  of  man  (unless  it  be  rival  climates, 
motor-cars  or  pianos)  that  so  inspires  incom- 
petent, irrelevant  and  immaterial  criticism  as 
wayward  fireplaces.  It  is  part  of  my  business 
to  listen  respectfully  to  opinions,  to  receive  with 
an  appearance  of  credulity  the  theories  of  others; 
and  those  advanced  in  Miss  Hollister's  library 
were  not  below  the  average  to  which  I  was  ac- 
customed. 

"A  swallow  undoubtedly  fell  into  the  chim- 
ney-pot and  then  got  itself  out  again,"  sug- 
gested Cecilia. 

"The  logs  must  have  been  wet.  The  sap 
had  n't  dried  out  yet,"  proposed  Wiggins. 

"The  wood  was  as  dry  as  tinder,"  averred 
Miss  Hollister,  not  without  irritation.  "And  one 
swallow  does  not  make  a  summer  or  a  chimney 
smoke.  It  must  have  been  a  changing  current 
of  air.  I  was  reading  a  book  on  ballooning  the 
other  day,  and  it  is  remarkable  how  the  air 
currents  change." 

"That  is  quite  possible,  as  the  air  cools  rap- 
78 


THE  STRANGE  BEHAVIOR  OF  A  CHIMNEY 

idly  after  sunset  at  this  season,  and  that  is 
bound  to  have  an  effect  on  the  quality  and  re- 
sistance of  the  atmosphere,"  I  replied  sagely. 

"Perhaps,"  suggested  Miss  Hollister,  with  one 
of  those  flashes  of  animation  that  were  so  de- 
lightful in  her,  "perhaps  it  was  a  ghost!  Will 
you  tell  us,  Mr.  Ames,  whether  in  your  expe- 
rience you  have  ever  known  a  chimney  ghost?" 

As  I  had  no  opinion  of  my  own  as  to  what 
had  caused  the  chimney's  brief  aberration,  I  was 
glad  to  follow  Miss  Hollister' s  lead. 

"I  have  had  several  experiences  with  ghosts," 
I  began,  "though  I  should  not  like  you  to  think 
that  I  profess  any  special  genius  for  the  analysis 
of  psychical  phenomena.  But  there  was  a  house 
at  Shinnecock  that  was  reputed  to  be  haunted. 
The  living-room  chimney  behaved  damnably. 
The  house  was  one  of  Buffington's.  Buffington, 
you  know,  was  quite  capable  of  building  a  house 
and  omitting  any  stairway.  We  used  to  say  at 
the  club  that  he  ought  to  have  specialized  in 
fire-engine  houses,  where  the  men  don't  use  stair- 
ways but  slide  down  a  pole.  Well,  the  living-room 
chimney  in  this  particular  house  could  n't  be 
made  to  draw  with  a  team  of  elephants,  and  it  had 
also  the  reputation  of  being  haunted.  Strange 
flutings  of  the  weirdest  and  most  distressing  kind 
were  often  heard  at  night.  The  owner  gave  up 

79 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

in  despair  and  moved  out,  turning  the  house  over 
to  me.  After  eliminating  all  other  possibilities,  I 
decided  that  the  piping  spook  must  be  related  to 
the  disorder  in  the  chimney.  It  served  two  fire- 
places, and  I  proceeded  to  knock  the  kinks  out 
of  it  so  it  did  n't  tie  knots  in  a  plumb-line  as  at 
first;  but,  believe  me,  when  it  stopped  smoking 
it  still  whistled,  in  the  most  fantastical  fashion. 
I  was  living  in  the  house,  with  only  the  servants 
about,  and  for  a  week  gave  my  whole  thought 
to  this  flue.  The  ghostly  flutist  was  an  amateur, 
but  he  tried  his  hand  at  every  sort  of  tune, 
from  *  Sally  in  our  Alley'  to  the  jewel  song  in 
Faust.  The  whistling  did  n't  begin  till  nearly 
midnight,  and  continued  usually  for  about  an 
hour.  I  tried  in  every  way  to  lure  him  into  the 
open,  and  I  fell  downstairs  one  night  as  I  crept 
about  in  the  dark  trying  to  trace  the  sound. 
And  to  what  palpable  and  mundane  source  do 
you  suppose  I  traced  that  ghost?" 

"I  never  should  guess,"  murmured  Cecilia, 
"unless  it  was  merely  the  weird  whistling  of 
the  wind." 

"Nothing  so  poetical,  I'm  sorry  to  confess. 
It  was  the  butler !  In  his  nightly  cups  his  soul 
inclined  to  music,  and  being  a  timid  soul,  fear- 
ful of  the  cynical  tongues  of  the  other  servants, 
he  crawled  into  the  ash-dump  in  the  cellar, 

80 


THE  STRANGE  BEHAVIOR  OF  A  CHIMNEY 

which  communicated  with  the  several  fireplaces 
above,  and  there  indulged  himself  gently  upon 
the  tuneful  reed.  The  night  I  caught  him  he 
was  breathing  the  wild  strains  of  Brunhilde's 
Battle-Cry  into  the  tube,  and  it  was  shudder- 
some,  I  can  tell  you!  I  took  it  upon  myself  to 
discharge  him  on  the  spot,  and  the  grateful 
owner  returned  the  next  day." 

"The  presence  of  a  ghost  in  this  house  would 
give  me  the  greatest  pleasure,"  declared  Miss 
Hollister,  who  had  listened  intently  to  my  re- 
cital. "I  should  look  upon  a  ghost's  appear- 
ance at  Hopefield  Manor  as  a  great  compli- 
ment. If  any  reputable,  decent  ghost  should 
by  any  chance  take  up  his  residence  in  this 
house,  I  should  give  him  every  encouragement." 

Miss  Hollister  seemed  to  have  forgotten  the 
proposed  game  of  billiards.  The  chimney's  law- 
less demonstration  had,  in  fact,  given  a  new  turn 
to  the  evening.  We  discussed  ghosts  for  half 
an  hour,  and  then,  without  having  enjoyed  any 
opportunity  for  a  single  private  word  with  Ce- 
cilia, Wiggins  rose  to  leave.  He  shook  hands 
all  around  and  bowed  from  the  door.  It  was 
in  my  mind  to  follow,  making  a  pretext  of  walk- 
ing with  him  to  the  station  or  of  helping  him 
find  his  car;  but  nothing  in  his  good -night  to 
me  encouraged  such  attentions,  and  as  I  pon- 

81 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

dered,  the  outer  door  closed  upon  my  irresolu- 
tion. 

At  the  stroke  of  ten  Miss  Hollister  rose  and 
excused  herself.  "We  breakfast  at  eight,  Mr. 
Ames.  I  trust  the  hour  does  not  conflict  with 
your  habits." 

I  assured  her  that  the  hour  was  wholly  agreeable, 
and  she  gave  me  her  hand  with  great  dignity. 

When  I  turned  toward  Cecilia  she  had  moved 
to  a  seat  close  by  the  hearth  and  was  gazing 
dreamily  into  the  fire,  now  a  bed  of  glowing  coals. 

"It  was  odd,"  I  remarked. 

"You  mean  the  chimney?" 

"Yes.  It  was  quite  unaccountable.  I  con- 
fess that  I  never  knew  a  chimney's  mood  to 
change  so  abruptly." 

She  sat  silent  for  several  minutes,  and  then 
she  lifted  her  head  and  her  eyes  met  mine. 

"Pardon  me,  Mr.  Ames,  but  did  my  aunt 
ask  you  here  to  examine  the  chimneys?  I  did  n't 
quite  understand.  We  have  been  here  only  a 
week;  the  weather  has  been  warm,  and  I  be- 
lieve this  fire  had  not  been  lighted  before  to- 
day. You  will  pardon  my  frankness,  but  I  can't 
quite  understand  why  my  aunt  invited  you 
here  if  you  came  professionally.  I  thought  when 
you  appeared  this  afternoon  that  you  were  a 
guest  —  nothing  more  —  or  less." 

82 


THE  STRANGE  BEHAVIOR  OF  A  CHIMNEY 

"You  had  heard  nothing  of  any  trouble  with 
the  fireplaces?  Then  I  am  in  the  dark  as  much 
as  you.  As  I  understood  it,  I  was  called  here 
to  examine  the  flues;  but  now  that  I  think  of 
it,  she  did  not  say  explicitly  that  her  chimneys 
were  behaving  badly,  though  that  was  of  course 
implied.  I  naturally  assumed  that  she  sum- 
moned me  here  in  my  professional  capacity. 
I  was  a  stranger  to  your  aunt;  she  would  hardly 
have  invited  me  otherwise." 

She  turned  again  to  the  fire  as  though  re- 
ferring to  it  for  counsel.  Her  perplexity  was 
no  greater  than  my  own.  It  was  certainly  an 
extraordinary  experience  to  be  invited  to  a 
strange  house  where  my  services  had  not  been 
needed,  and  to  find  that  an  apparently  sound 
chimney  had  begun  to  smoke  at  once  as  though 
in  mockery  of  my  presence. 

"I  imagine,  however,  that  your  aunt  acts  a 
good  deal  on  impulse.  Her  asking  me  here  may 
have  been  only  a  whim." 

"Please  don't  imagine  that  your  coming  has 
not  been  agreeable  to  me,"  Cecilia  protested. 
"My  aunt  is  quite  capable  of  inviting  a  stranger 
to  the  house.  She  met  you,  I  believe,  at  the  Aso- 
lando.  I  hope  you  understand  that  it  is  only  be- 
cause I  am  in  deep  trouble,  Mr.  Ames,  trouble 
of  the  gravest  nature,  that  I  have  ventured  to 

83 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

speak  to  you  in  this  way  of  my  aunt,  for  whom 
I  have  all  respect  and  affection." 

She  had  never,  I  was  sure,  been  lovelier  than 
at  this  moment.  Her  eyes  filled,  but  she  lifted 
her  head  proudly.  Whatever  the  trouble  might 
be  I  was  sorry  for  it  on  her  own  account;  and 
if  it  involved  Hartley  Wiggins  my  sympathy 
went  out  to  him  also.  On  an  impulse  I  spoke 
of  him. 

"I  was  surprised  to  meet  Hartley  Wiggins 
here.  He  's  a  dear  friend  of  mine,  you  know. 
I  thought  he  had  gone  to  his  ranch.  He  left 
the  Hare  and  Tortoise  very  abruptly  a  few 
nights  ago  just  after  we  had  dined  together. 
He  must  be  stopping  somewhere  in  the  neigh- 
borhood." 

"It's  quite  possible.  And  there's  an  inn, 
you  know.  I  fancy  he  drove  over  from  there." 

"I  hadn't  thought  of  that;  the  Prescott 
Arms,  I  suppose  you  mean." 

She  nodded,  but  she  was  clearly  not  inter- 
ested in  me,  and  when  I  found  myself  failing 
dismally  to  divert  her  thoughts  to  cheerfuller 
channels,  I  rose  and  bade  her  good-night. 

The  servant  who  had  previously  attended  me 
appeared  promptly  when  I  reached  my  room, 
bearing  a  tray,  with  biscuits  and  a  bottle  of  ale. 
He  gave  me  an  envelope  addressed  in  a  hand 

84 


THE  STRANGE  BEHAVIOR  OF  A  CHIMNEY 

I  already  knew  as  Miss  Octavia's,  and  I  opened 
and  read:  — 

"The  following  I  either  detest  or  distrust, 
so  kindly  refrain  from  mentioning  them  while 
you  are  a  guest  of  Hopefield  Manor:  — 

Automobiles. 

Mashed  Potatoes. 

Whiskers. 

Chopin's  Concerto  in  E  Minor  (op.  11). 

Bishop's  'Coadjutor. 

Limericks. 

Cats. 

OCTAVIA    HOLLISTER." 

I  absorbed  this  with  a  glass  of  ale.  There 
were  seven  items,  I  noted,  and  I  had  no  serious 
quarrel  with  her  attitude  toward  any  of  them; 
but  just  what  these  matters  had  to  do  with  me 
or  my  presence  in  her  house  I  could  not  deter- 
mine. She  had  referred  to  me  in  the  note  as  a 
guest  —  I  had  noted  that;  and  I  did  know, 
moreover,  that  Miss  Octavia  Hollister  possessed 
a  quaint  and  delicate  humor;  and  I  looked  for- 
ward with  the  pleasantest  anticipations  to  our 
further  meetings. 

Before  I  slept  I  threw  up  my  window  and 
stepped  out  upon  a  narrow  balcony  that  af- 
forded a  capital  view  of  the  fields  and  woods 
to  the  east.  The  night  was  fine,  with  the  sky 
bright  with  stars  and  moon.  As  my  eyes  dropped 

85 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

from  the  horizon  to  the  near  landscape,  I  saw 
a  man  perched  on  a  knoll  in  the  midst  of  a 
corn-field.  He  stood  as  rigid  as  a  sentry  on  duty, 
or  like  a  forlorn  commander,  counting  the  spears 
of  his  tattered  battalions.  I  was  not  sure  that  he 
saw  me,  for  the  balcony  was  slightly  shadowed, 
but  at  any  rate,  he  was  sharply  outlined  to  my 
vision.  His  derby  hat  and  overcoat  gave  him  an 
odd  appearance  as  he  stood  brooding  above  the 
corn.  Then  he  vanished  suddenly,  though,  as  he 
retired  toward  the  highway,  I  followed  him  for 
some  time  by  the  shaking  and  jerking  of  the 
corn-stalks. 

I  lay  awake  far  into  the  night,  considering 
the  events  of  the  day.  Of  these  the  curious 
stoppage  of  the  library  chimney  was  the  least 
interesting.  I  doubted  whether  it  would  ever 
recur.  The  love-affair  of  Hartley  Wiggins  was, 
however,  a  matter  of  importance  to  me,  his 
friend,  and  I  determined  to  make  every  effort 
to  see  him  the  next  day  and  learn  the  exact 
status  of  his  affair  with  Cecilia  Hollister. 


VI 

I   DELIVER   A   MESSAGE 

I  WAS  aroused  at  six  o'clock  the  next  morning 
by  the  sound  of  gun-shots,  and  springing  out 
of  bed  I  beheld,  in  an  open  pasture  beyond  the 
stable-yard,  the  indomitable  Miss  Hollister 
engaged  in  the  pleasing  pastime  of  breaking 
clay  pigeons  with  a  fowling-piece.  Her  Swed- 
ish maid  stood  by  with  a  formidable  pad  of 
paper,  keeping  score.  A  boy  pulled  the  trap 
for  her,  and  she  threw  up  her  gun  and  blazed 
away  with  a  practised  hand.  Her  small,  slight, 
tense  figure,  awaiting  the  launching  of  the  tar- 
get, the  quick  up-bring  of  the  gun  as  she  sighted, 
and  the  pause,  following  the  firing  of  the  shot, 
in  which  she  bent  forward  rigidly  watching  the 
result,  were  features  of  a  picture  which  I  would 
not  have  missed.  My  eye  could  not  follow  the 
curving  disc  in  its  flight,  but  when  the  shot  told, 
the  bursting  clay  made  a  little  patch  of  dust 
in  the  air  that  was  plainly  visible  from  where  I 
sat.  Beyond  the  stable-roofs,  on  a  broad  stretch 
of  pasture  whose  aftermath  made  a  green  field 
about  her,  and  against  a  background  of  the 

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THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

more   distant   woods'    tapestry,    Miss   Octavia 
Hollister  was  a  figure  to  admire.  And  I  will 


write  it  down  here  and  be  done  with  it,  that  it 
has  been  my  good  fortune  to  know  many  de- 
lightful women,  but  I  have  never  known  one 
more  interesting  or  charming  than  Miss  Octavia 
Hollister.  The  spirit  of  deathless  youth  was  in 
her  heart;  and  youth's  gay  pennants  fluttered 

88 


I  DELIVER  A  MESSAGE 


about  her,  as  the  reports  of  her  gun  fell  cheerily 
upon  the  crisp  morning  air,  a  rebuke  and  a  chal- 
lenge to  all  indolent  souls. 

I  made  myself  presentable  as  quickly  as  pos- 
sible and  went  forth  to  report  to  her.  She  nodded 
pleasantly  as  I  greeted  her  immediately  after  she 
had  scored  a  capital  shot.  A  second  gun  was 
produced,  and  I  saw  that  it  was  not  without  sat- 
isaction  that  she  observed  my  lack  of  prowess. 
One  out  of  five  was  the  best  I  could  do,  whereas 
she  smashed  three  with  the  greatest  ease. 

On  alternate  mornings,  she  informed  me,  she 
shot  glass  balls  with  a  rifle,  a  sport  which  she 
declared  to  be  superior  to  pigeon-shooting  in 
the  severity  of  its  demand  upon  the  nerve  and 
eye. 

"If  I  had  known  you  would  be  up  so  early  I 
should  have  sent  coffee  to  your  room,"  she  re- 
marked as  we  walked  toward  the  house.  "Very 
likely  your  lack  of  luck  with  the  birds  is  attrib- 
utable entirely  to  the  impoverished  state  of  your 
stomach." 

Breakfast  was  served  on  a  delightful  sun- 
porch  that  I  had  not  before  seen.  Cecilia  ap- 
peared promptly,  having  in  fact  been  gather- 
ing fall  flowers  for  some  time,  I  judged,  from 
the  considerable  armful  of  chrysanthemums, 
asters,  dahlias  and  marigolds,  which  we  found 

89 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

her  arranging  for  the  table.  She  seemed  in  ex- 
cellent spirits,  and  greeted  us  most  amiably. 

"I  heard  the  artillery  booming  and  thought 
an  army  had  descended.  It 's  a  great  regret  to 
me,  Mr.  Ames,  that  I  have  never  been  able  to 
make  any  headway  at  the  traps.  I  suffer  from 
chronic  and  incurable  gun-shyness.  I  'm  sorry 
archery  has  gone  out.  I  think  I  might  have 
done  better  with  the  long  bow." 

"Pinkie!"  exclaimed  Miss  Hollister  disdain- 
fully. "I  cured  myself  of  gun -shy  ness  easily 
enough  by  having  the  gardener  follow  me  about 
whenever  I  took  my  daily  walks,  firing  a  gun 
at  irregular  intervals  just  behind  me.  I  was 
threatened  with  deafness  when  I  began,  but  the 
agitation  of  my  tympanums  by  the  explosions  of 
my  gun  has  corrected  the  difficulty.  I  have  men- 
tioned my  discovery  of  this  remedy  to  a  distin- 
guished aurist,  and  he  is  preparing  a  paper  on 
the  subject  —  not,  however,  without  my  permis- 
sion —  which  he  expects  to  read  shortly  before 
one  of  the  most  learned  societies  in  Europe. 
Cecilia,  the  chops  are  overdone  again;  please 
remind  me  to  speak  to  the  cook  about  it.  If  it 
were  not  that  he  is  so  expert  in  detecting  spuri- 
ous steam-mill  corn-meal,  which  is  constantly  sold 
as  a  substitute  for  the  Boydville  water-ground 
article,  I  should  discharge  him  for  this.  An  ill- 

90 


I  DELIVER  A  MESSAGE 


broiled  chop  can  do  much  to  shake  one's  faith  in 
human  nature.  If  I  wanted  to  eat  grilled  patent 
leather  I  should  order  it." 

In  spite  of  her  sharp  observations  it  was  quite 
clear  to  me  that  Miss  Hollister's  was  the  gen- 
tlest and  sweetest  of  natures.  I  fully  believed 
that  her  whims  were  the  honest  expression  of  a 
revolt  against  the  tedious  and  conventional,  and 
nothing  in  my  later  acquaintance  disturbed  this 
opinion.  It  was  her  privilege  to  do  as  she  liked, 
and  if  she  preferred  cracking  clay  saucers  with 
a  shot-gun  to  knitting  or  darning  stockings  or 
gossiping,  it  was  no  one's  business. 

The  mail  arrived  and  was  placed  by  her  plate 
before  we  left  the  table.  She  opened  first  a  bulky 
envelope  containing  cuttings  from  a  clipping 
bureau,  and  she  mused  aloud  upon  these  as  she 
read. 

"This  persistent  story  of  a  sunken  galleon  off 
the  Bolivian  coast  sounds  plausible,  but  I  fear  it 
is  the  work  of  some  bright  young  journalist. 
Our  minister  in  that  benighted  country  does  n't 
take  any  stock  in  it.  I  had  a  cable  from  him 
yesterday.  If  he  had  given  the  story  credence 
I  should  have  gone  down  at  once  with  a  steamer 
and  crew  of  divers.  The  imaginative  young  news- 
paper men  continue  romancing,  however;  and 
it  costs  me  five  cents  a  clipping." 

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THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

She  next  opened  a  letter  that  roused  her  to 
vigorous  declamation. 

"Cecilia,"  she  began,  "here  is  a  letter  from 
that  Mrs.  Stanford  we  met  in  Berne.  She  en- 
closes a  card  that  indicates  her  wish  to  be 
called  Mrs.  Appleby  now,  having,  I  believe, 
spent  a  few  months  since  our  meeting  in  one  of 
our  American  States  where  the  marital  tie  read- 
ily evaporates,  and  shaken  Stanford,  whom  I 
have  heard  spoken  of  in  the  highest  terms  by 
persons  of  character.  We  live  in  an  era  of  horse- 
less carriages,  wireless  telegraphy,  husbandless 
wives  and  wifeless  husbands.  I  have  hit  upon  a 
formula  which  I  am  tempted  to  utilize  hereafter 
when  I  meet  husbandless  women.  When  they 
are  introduced  I  shall  ask:  — 

Shaken, 
Or  taken? 

signifying  in  the  first  instance  a  loss  by  way  of 
Nevada,  or,  in  the  second,  through  the  pearlier 
gates  of  that  Paradise  which  is  the  hope  of  us 
all.  Mr.  Ames,  as  the  butler  has  gone  to  sleep 
in  the  pantry,  you  will  kindly  pass  the  salt." 

She  had  handed  Cecilia  a  number  of  letters, 
which  the  girl  opened  and  then  to  my  surprise 
meekly  turned  over  to  her  aunt.  Miss  Hollister 
surveyed  them  critically. 

92 


I  DELIVER  A  MESSAGE 


"I  thought,"  she  remarked,  "that  that  young 
Henderson  who  was  so  attentive  to  you  at  Ma- 
drid was  an  impostor,  and  this  note  settles  the 
matter.  He  flirted  outrageously  with  Hezekiah 
behind  your  back.  He  asks  if  he  may  call  upon 
you  here.  If  he  were  the  nephew  of  Colonel 
Abner  Henderson  of  Roanoke,  as  he  repre- 
sented himself  to  be,  he  would  not  ask  if  he  might 
call  upon  you,  but  would  have  appeared  at  once 
in  his  proper  person  to  pay  his  addresses.  An 
unchivalrous  and  wobbly  character,  who  evi- 
dently expects  you  to  make  the  advances.  But 
such  are  the  youth  of  our  time.  And  besides, 
Cecilia,  his  stationery  leaves  much  to  be  de- 
sired. As  for  these  other  gentlemen  we  need  not 
discuss  them.  Their  actions  must  speak  for 
them." 

Miss  Hollister,  having  thus  dismissed  her 
niece's  correspondents,  rose  and  led  the  way  to 
the  library.  Cecilia  seemed  in  no  wise  depressed 
by  her  aunt's  fling  at  Mr.  Henderson,  whoever 
he  might  be,  but  threw  the  notes  upon  the  flames 
that  blazed  merrily  in  the  fireplace. 

I  suggested  immediately  that  as  I  had  come 
to  Hopefield  Manor  to  inspect  the  flues  I  should 
now  be  about  my  business;  but  to  my  surprise 
Miss  Hollister  evinced  no  interest  whatever  in 
the  matter.  Her  tone  and  manner  implied  that 

93 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

the    condition    of    her    chimneys   was    wholly 
negligible. 

"There  is  no  haste,  Mr.  Ames.  I  have  suf- 
fered all  my  life  from  the  ill-considered  and  hur- 
ried work  of  professional  men.  Even  the  clergy 
—  and  I  have  enjoyed  the  acquaintance  of 
many —  are  quite  reckless  in  giving  opinions.  I 
once  asked  the  Bishop  of  Waxahaxie  —  was  it 
Waxahaxie,  Cecilia,  or  Tallahassee? -- well,  it 
does  n't  matter  anyhow  --  whether  he  honestly 
believed  there  are  no  women  angels.  He  replied 
with  unusual  frankness  for  one  in  holy  orders 
that  he  did  n't  know,  but  added  that  he  was 
sure  there  are  angel  women.  Just  for  that  im- 
pertinence I  cut  in  two  my  subscription  to  his 
cathedral  building-fund.  When  I  ask  an  expert 
opinion  of  an  educated  person  I  don't  intend 
to  be  put  off  with  mere  persiflage.  And  to  re- 
turn to  my  chimneys,  I  beg  that  you  give  me 
the  result  of  your  most  serious  deliberations. 
At  this  hour  I  ride ;  Cecilia,  will  you  dress  im- 
mediately and  accompany  me  ?  " 

She  disappeared  at  once  and  I  stared  mutely 
after  her.  I  am  by  no  means  an  idler,  and  this 
cool  indifference  to  the  value  of  my  time  would 
ordinarily  have  enraged  me;  but  I  believe  I 
laughed,  and  when  I  turned  to  Cecilia  I  found 
her  smiling. 

94 


I  DELIVER  A  MESSAGE 


"I  'm  glad,  Mr.  Ames,  that  you  are  a  person 
of  humor.  My  aunt's  conduct  verifies  what  I 
said  to  you  last  night  —  that  the  flues  in  this 
house  have  given  us  no  trouble;  that  they  have 
indeed  had  little  chance  to  do  so  in  the  short 
time  we  have  spent  here.  It  is  true  that  this  one 
acted  queerly  last  night,  and  I  have  wondered 
about  its  temporary  sulkiness  a  good  deal.  It 
will  be  well,  of  course,  for  you  to  go  over  it,  and 
all  the  others  in  the  house.  It  is  no  joke  that 
my  aunt  is  a  believer  in  thoroughness,  and  one 
of  these  days,  when  she  is  ready  to  talk  of  chim- 
neys, she  will  subject  you  to  a  most  rigid  ex- 
amination." 

"One  of  these  days?  Why,  I  have  looked  at 
the  time-table,  and  it  is  my  present  intention 
to  take  the  12:03  into  town.  I  have  appoint- 
ments at  my  office  for  the  afternoon.  I  assure 
you,  Miss  Hollister,  that  I  'm  a  man  of  engage- 
ments, particularly  at  this  season." 

I  remembered  what  Jewett  had  told  me  of 
Fortner,  the  painter,  and  his  detention  at  New- 
port by  Miss  Octavia  Hollister.  I  had  no  in- 
tention of  being  immured  in  any  such  fashion, 
and  I  was  about  to  protest  further  when  Ce- 
cilia took  a  step  toward  me,  and  after  a  glance 
at  the  door  spoke  in  a  low  tone  and  with  great 
earnestness. 

95 


"Mr.  Ames,  I  have  every  reason  to  believe 
that  you  are  a  gentleman,  and  in  that  confident 
belief  I  'm  going  to  ask  a  favor  of  you.  You 
have  said  that  you  know  Mr.  Hartlev  Wiggins 
well." 

"I  know  no  man  better.  You  might  not  have 
inferred  it  from  his  manner  last  night,  but  he 
was  undoubtedly  surprised  and  embarrassed 
by  mv  presence,  and  did  not  act  quite  like  him- 
self." 

"I  think  I  understand  the  cause  of  that.  If  I 
should  ask  you  to  see  him  to-day  and  give  him 
a  message  for  me,  could  you  do  so?" 

"It  will  be  an  honor  to  serve  you;  and  a  very 
simple  matter,  as  I  should  see  him  on  my  own 
account  if  he  is  still  in  the  neighborhood." 

"He  is  doubtless  at  the  Prescott  Arms.  My 
message  is  a  verbal  one.  Please  urge  him  not  to 
make  any  effort  to  see  me,  and  not  to  call  here 
again.  But  at  the  same  time,  as  the  chimney 
smoked  just  as  we  were  about  to  be  left  alone 
last  night,  I  think  —  I  think"  —  she  hesitated 
a  moment  —  "You  may  say  that  his  interests 
have  not  been  jeopardized  by  his  temerity  in 
calling." 

In  her  pause  before  concluding  this  curious 
commission  her  eyes  searched  mine  deeply,  and 
I  felt  that  she  had  not  lightly  entrusted  me  with 

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I  DELIVER  A  MESSAGE 


this  singular  errand.  Her  dark  eyes  held  mine 
an  instant  after  she  had  spoken ;  then  she  smiled, 
and  her  face  showed  relief. 

"Ask  for  anything  you  want.  Aunt  Octavia 
despises  motors,  so  there  's  no  car  here,  but  you 
will  find  plenty  of  horses  and  traps.  Order  what- 
ever pleases  you.  I  shall  expect  to  meet  you 
at  dinner  if  not  at  luncheon  —  and  so"  —  she 
smiled  again  —  "  will  Aunt  Octavia.'* 

She  nodded  to  me  from  the  door,  and  I  heard 
her  running  lightly  upstairs. 

Left  to  my  own  devices  I  rang  the  bell  and 
ordered  the  library  fire  extinguished  and  the 
hearth  cleaned.  This  required  a  little  time;  but 
the  house  man  obeyed  me  readily,  and  soon, 
clad  in  my  professional  overalls  and  jumper,  I 
was  going  carefully  over  the  flue  whose  behavior 
had  been  so  unaccountable  the  previous  night. 
Guided  by  the  servant  I  inspected  the  three  fire- 
places in  the  upper  chambers  that  were  served  by 
flues  in  this  chimney  and  finally  dropped  my  torch 
and  plumb-line  from  the  chimney-pot.  Never  in 
all  my  experience  had  I  seen  better  flues;  but 
remembering  my  ghost  at  Shinnecock,  I  had 
the  ashes  thrown  out  of  the  dump  in  the  cellar 
and  found  the  chute  in  perfect  order.  I  learned 
by  inquiry  that  the  other  flues  worked  perfectly, 
but  I  nevertheless  scrutinized  them  carefully. 

97 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

My  freedom  of  the  house  afforded  an  excellent 
opportunity  for  a  study  of  its  beautiful  con- 
struction. It  was  modern  in  every  sense,  with 
no  dark,  mysterious  corners  in  which  goblins 
might  lurk.  I  prowled  about  with  increasing 
admiration  for  Pepperton,  and  with  a  deepen- 
ing sense  of  my  own  failure  in  the  art  which 
he  adorned. 

My  professional  labors  were  finished.  I  was 
quite  ready  for  Miss  Hollister's  most  searching 
inquiries.  As  for  the  library  flue,  I  had  decided 
that  a  little  care  in  piling  the  logs  in  the  hearth 
would  obviate  the  possibility  of  any  recurrence 
of  the  difficulty.  And  I  thereupon  hurried  to 
my  room,  and  after  a  tub  (my  vocation  encour- 
aged frequent  tubbing)  chose  from  the  stable  a 
neat  trap  for  one  horse.  Thus  equipped  I  set 
out  to  find  Wiggins. 

The  Prescott  Arms  is  an  inn  that  sprang  into 
being  with  the  advent  of  motoring.  The  tourist 
is  advised  of  his  approach  to  it  by  signs  swung 
at  the  crossways,  and  its  plaster  and  timber 
walls  are  in  plain  sight  from  one  of  the  excel- 
lent state  roads.  Gasoline  and  other  liquids  are 
offered  there;  one  may  have  tea  or  an  ampler 
meal  on  short  notice;  and  a  few  guests  may  be 
lodged  in  case  of  necessity.  I  remembered  it 
well,  having  several  times  found  it  a  haven  on 

98 


I  DELIVER  A  MESSAGE 


motor-flights  with  friends.  As  I  drove  into  the 
entrance  I  saw  Wiggins  pacing  the  long  veranda. 


He  waved  a  hand  and  came  out  to  meet  me, 
and  when  I  had  rid  myself  of  the  trap  he  sug- 
gested that  we  take  a  walk. 

His  manner  was  not  cordial,  and  he  wore 
the  haggard  look  of  a  man  on  bad  terms  with 
his  pillow.  I  attributed  his  appearance  to  pre- 
occupation with  his  love-affair.  When  we  had 

99 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

withdrawn  a  little  way  from  the  inn  he  turned 
on  me  sharply. 

"Well?  "he  demanded. 

"Well/'  I  laughed. 

"Oh,  you  needn't  take  that  tone  about  it! 
Your  being  here  is  something  that  requires  ex- 
planation; and  your  being  there9' — he  flung 
out  his  arm  toward  Hopefield  Manor  —  "your 
presence  there  is  not  a  laughing  matter." 

"My  dear  Wiggins,  I  came  here  in  a  spirit  of 
friendship,  and  you  treat  me  like  a  pickpocket. 
I  must  say  that  if  you  had  not  acted  like  a  clam 
the  other  night  at  the  club,  but  had  told  me  what 
was  in  the  wind,  we  might  not  be  meeting  now 
like  ancient  enemies  instead  of  old  and  intimate 
friends." 

He  vouchsafed  no  reply,  but  threw  himself 
down  under  a  scarlet  maple  and  began  to  whit- 
tle a  stick,  while  I  went  on  with  my  story. 

"I  met  Miss  Octavia  Hollister  in  the  Aso- 
lando  the  day  after  our  last  dinner  at  the  club. 
I  had  dropped  into  the  tea-room  merely  to  look 
at  the  place  again.  I  had  never  seen  her  before 
in  all  my  life.  She  is  a  whimsical  old  lady —  but 
a  lady,  you  must  admit  that  —  and  we  ex- 
changed cards.  On  learning  my  occupation  she 
at  once  declared  that  I  must  come  up  here  to 
look  at  her  chimneys.  She  made  an  appoint- 

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I  DELIVER  A  MESSAGE 


ment  by  mail  for  yesterday  afternoon.  It  is  not 
my  fault  that  she  treated  me  like  a  guest,  or 
that  she  introduced  me  of  necessity  to  her  niece 
Cecilia.  And  now  I  have  finished  my  work,  and 
after  I  have  made  my  report  I  shall  probably 
not  meet  her  again.  As  for  Miss  Cecilia  Hoi- 
lister,  I  can  only  say,  my  dear  Wiggins,  that  she 
is  a  rarely  beautiful  woman,  and  that  if  you  wish 
to  marry  her  you  have  my  very  best  wishes  for 
your  success  and  happiness." 

"It  struck  me  that  you  were  pretty  well  es- 
tablished there,"  he  blurted.  "I  confess  that  I 
took  it  for  granted  you  were  not  there  wholly  on 
a  professional  errand;  and  I  won't  deny,  Ames, 
that  I  was  not  pleased  to  see  you." 

''You  honor  me  in  assuming  that  I  might  as- 
pire to  the  hand  of  so  splendid  a  woman  as  Ce- 
cilia Hollister;  but,  my  dear  Wiggins,  I  tell  you 
I  never  laid  eyes  on  her  until  last  night." 

"But  you  had  been  to  the  Asolando,"  he  per- 
sisted, hacking  away  doggedly  at  his  stick. 

"Of  course  I  had.  I  told  you  I  had.  I  told 
you  the  whole  story.  But  I  did  not  see  Cecilia 
Hollister  there.  She  was  n't  there !  I  fancy  that 
after  you  saw  her  there  last  spring  and  became 
infatuated  with  her  and  followed  her  to  Europe 
instead  of  going  to  Dakota  to  harvest  your 
blooming  wheat  —  after  that  bit  of  history  she 

101 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

never  returned  to  the  Asolando.  Your  lack  of 
frankness  in  all  this  has  pained  me.  And  you 
left  it  for  a  gossiping  chap  like  Jewett  to  tell 
me  the  whole  story.  And  to  cap  your  duplicity 
you  sneaked  out  of  the  club  the  other  night 
while  Jewett  was  talking  to  me  and  let  the  club 
people  think  you  were  bound  for  your  ranch. 
I  call  it  rather  low  down,  Wiggins,  after  all  the 
years  we  have  known  each  other.  My  slate  is 
clean;  how  about  yours?" 

He  threw  the  stick  at  a  sparrow  whose  chirp 
irritated  him  from  a  stone  fence  beyond  us,  and 
turned  toward  me  a  countenance  on  which  de- 
jection, humiliation,  and  chagrin  were  written 
large. 

"Damn  it  all!"  he  bellowed,  "I  believe  I  'm 
losing  my  mind.  I  don't  know  what  I  'm  doing. 
That  old  woman  up  there  is  responsible  for  all 
this.  She  's  as  crazy  as  a  March  hare,  —  crazier ! 
And  she  's  made  a  prisoner  of  that  girl.  I  tell 
you  Cecilia  Hollister  is  the  grandest  girl  in  the 
world." 

"Go  it,  son!  Those  descendants  of  Caesar's 
legions  at  work  in  the  road  down  there  are  paus- 
ing to  listen.  Try  to  affect  calmness  if  you  don't 
feel  it.  I  agree  to  all  you  say  of  Miss  Cecilia. 
And  please  get  it  into  your  noddle  that  I  have 
no  intention  of  becoming  your  rival  for  her  hand. 

102 


I  DELIVER  A  MESSAGE 


But  I  must  beg  of  you  also  not  to  speak  in  such 
terms  of  her  aunt.  She  's  the  most  delightful 
woman  I  ever  met." 

"Mad,  I  tell  you,  quite  mad!" 

"Wise,  —  with  the  most  beautiful  wisdom; 
you  simply  don't  understand  her." 

"I  know  all  I  want  to  about  her.  If  she  were 
not  insane  she  would  not  build  a  wall  of  mys- 
tery about  her  niece  and  keep  me  camping  out 
here  not  knowing  where  I  stand.  I  tell  you, 
Ames,  that  woman  is  a  malevolent  being;  she  's 
perfectly  fiendish." 

There  is  no  way  of  answering  a  man  in  this 
humor  save  by  laughter;  and  I  laughed  long 
and  loud,  to  the  consternation  of  the  Italian 
road-laborers  who  were  now  swallowing  their 
luncheons  a  short  distance  away  from  us. 

Wiggins  sulked  awhile  and  then  addressed  me 
seriously. 

"I  didn't  tell  you  I  was  going  abroad,  be- 
cause the  situation  made  explanations  difficult. 
I  could  hardly  tell  you  that  I  was  about  to  race 
over  Europe  after  a  waitress  I  had  seen  in  a  tea- 
room. You  're  always  so  confoundedly  suspi- 
cious. It  would  have  an  odd  sound  even  now 
if  she  were  —  well,  if  she  were  a  waitress  instead 
of  what  you  know  her  to  be.  And  my  animosity 
toward  Miss  Octavia  Hollister  is  due  to  the  fact 

103 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

that  after  I  had  been  as  courteous  to  her  all 
summer  long  as  I  could,  and  thought  myself 
tolerably  established  in  her  mind  as  a  decent 
person  and  a  gentleman,  she  suddenly  shuts 
Cecilia  up  in  that  house,  —  bought  it  on  pur- 
pose, I  fancy,  —  and  Cecilia  herself  is  compelled 
to  take  on  an  air  of  mystery,  warning  me  to 
keep  away,  suggesting  the  darkest  possibilities, 
but  giving  me  no  hint  whatever  of  the  reason 
for  her  conduct." 

"Let  us  confine  ourselves  to  Miss  Octavia  for 
a  moment.  While  you  were  acting  as  cavalier  to 
her  party  abroad  she  was  friendly;  then  she  sud- 
denly changed.  Now  there  must  be  some  ex- 
planation of  that." 

"Well,  for  one  thing,  she  flew  off  at  a  tangent 
about  my  ancestors.  We  were  in  Berlin  on  the 
Fourth  of  July  and  got  to  talking  about  the  Amer- 
ican revolution.  She  asked  me  what  my  people 
had  done  for  the  patriotic  cause.  The  painful  fact 
is  that  most  of  them  were  Tories  ;  but  my  great- 
grandfather broke  with  his  father  and  brothers, 
joined  Washington's  army,  and  fought  through 
the  whole  business.  But  to  save  the  feelings  of 
the  rest  of  them,  who  went  to  England  till  it  was 
all  over,  he  changed  his  name.  There 's  no  men- 
tion of  him  in  the  war  records  anywhere.  I've 
had  experts  working  on  it,  but  they  can't  find  any 

104 


I  DELIVER  A  MESSAGE 


trace  of  him.  He  was  greatly  embittered  by  the 
estrangement  from  his  people,  and  though  he  had 
a  farm  in  this  very  neighborhood  somewhere  — 
I  Ve  thought  sometime  I  'd  look  it  up  and  try  to 
get  hold  of  it  —  he  never  mentioned  his  military 
experiences  even  to  his  own  children.  Usually 
Miss  Hollister  changes  front  if  you  give  her  time. 
I've  heard  her  say  that  we'd  have  been  better 
off  if  we'd  never  broken  with  England;  but  she 
persists  in  prodding  that  weak  place  in  my 
armor." 

"That's  very  dark,  Wiggy.  If  she  keeps  it  up 
you'll  have  to  dig  up  your  great-grandfather 
someway.  The  spiritualists  might  call  him  on 
long  distance.  But  let  us  turn  to  Miss  Cecilia. 
I  don't  for  a  moment  believe  that  she  is  a  victim 
of  ancestor  worship.  The  perambulator  rampant 
adorns  the  Hollister  shield  to  the  exclusion 
of  everything  else.  From  what  you  say  Cecilia 
has  not  repelled  you;  on  the  other  hand  she  has 
frankly  given  you  to  understand  that  you  must 
not  press  your  suit  at  this  time  for  reasons  she 
sees  fit  to  withhold.  A  little  more  patience,  a 
little  calm  deliberation  and  less  violent  language, 
and  in  due  course  the  girl  is  yours.  Now  what 
do  you  fancy  is  the  cause  of  Cecilia's  abrupt 
change  of  attitude?" 

He  refused  to  meet  my  eyes,  but  turned  away 
105 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

as  though  to  conceal  an  embarrassment  whose 
cause  I  could  not  surmise.  When  he  spoke  it 
was  in  a  voice  husky  with  emotion. 

"Am  I  a  cad?  Am  I  beneath  the  contempt 
of  decent  people?" 

"It's  possible,  Wiggy,  that  you  are.  Go  on 
with  it." 

"Well,  you  know,"  he  began  diffidently,  " Ce- 
cilia has  a  sister." 

I  grinned,  but  his  scowl  brought  me  to  my- 
self again. 

:'Yes.  And  her  name  is  Hezekiah.  The  name 
pleases  me." 

"She  was  with  Miss  Octavia  in  her  gallop 
over  Europe,  so  I  saw  a  good  deal  of  her  neces- 
sarily. She  is  younger  than  Cecilia;  she 's  a 
good  deal  of  a  kid,  —  the  sort  that  never  grows 
up,  you  know." 

"Just  like  her  aunt  Octavia!" 

"Bah!  Don't  mention  that  woman.  Heze- 
kiah is  a  very  pretty  girl ;  and  I  suppose,  — 
well,  when  you  are  thrown  with  a  girl  that 
way,  seeing  her  constantly"  — 

I  clapped  my  hand  on  his  knee  as  the  light 
began  to  dawn  upon  me. 

:'You  old  rascal,  you  don't  need  to  add  a  sin- 
gle word!  I  dare  say  you  are  guilty.  I  can  see 
it  in  your  eye.  After  waiting  till  you  reached 

106 


I  DELIVER  A  MESSAGE 


years  of  discretion  before  beginning  an  attack 
upon  womankind,  you  began  mowing  them 
down  in  platoons.  So  they  come  running  now 
that  you  've  got  a  start.  Oh,  Wiggy,  and  I  be- 
lieved you  immune !  And  you  're  trying  to  drive 
'em  tandem." 

The  thing  was  funny,  knowing  Wiggins  as  I 
did,  and  I  gave  expression  to  my  mirth;  but  his 
fierce  demeanor  quickly  brought  me  back  to  the 
serious  contemplation  of  his  difficulty. 

"That,  you  shameless  wretch,  would  be  a  suf- 
ficient reason  for  Miss  Octavia's  aloofness, — 
your  double-faced  dealing  with  her  nieces?  You 
confirm  my  impression  that  she  is  a  wise  woman. 
And  Cecilia,  I  take  it,  may  be  deeply  embar- 
rassed by  her  sister's  infatuation  for  you.  You 
certainly  have  made  a  tangle  of  things,  you 
heart- wrecker,  you  conscienceless  deceiver!  But 
where,  may  I  ask,  does  this  Hezekiah  keep  her- 
self?" 

"Oh,  she's  with  her  father.  They  have  a 
bungalow  over  the  hills  there,  several  miles 
from  Hopefield  Manor." 

"Well,  I  hope  you  are  no  longer  toying  with 
her  affections.  Of  course  you  don't  see  her  any 
more?" 

"Well,"  he  mumbled,  "I  did  see  her  this 
morning.  But  I  could  n't  help  it.  It  was  the 

107 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

merest  chance.  I  met  her  in  the  road  when  I 
was  out  taking  a  walk.  She  's  always  turning 
up,  —  she 's  the  most  unaccountable  young 
person." 

"I  suppose,  Wiggy,  that  if  you  stand  in  the 
road  and  Miss  Hezekiah  Hollister  strolls  by  on 
her  way  to  market,  you  fancy  that  she  is  pur- 
suing you.  As  Miss  Octavia  has  well  said,  this 
is  not  a  chivalrous  age.  I  'm  deeply  disappointed 
in  you.  Your  conduct  and  your  attitude  to- 
ward this  trusting  young  girl  are  disgraceful." 

He  rose  and  flung  up  his  arms  despairingly. 
It  was  much  easier  to  laugh  at  Wiggins  than  to 
be  angry  at  him;  but  1  recalled  the  message 
which  Cecilia  had  entrusted  to  me,  and  this,  I 
thought,  might  give  him  some  comfort. 

"Miss  Cecilia  asked  me  this  morning  to  say 
to  you  that  you  must  not  try  to  see  her  again; 
you  must  keep  away  from  the  house." 

This  obviously  increased  his  dejection. 

"But,"  I  added,  "I  was  to  say  that  she  thought 
nothing  had  yet  occurred  to  interfere  with  your 
ambitions,  as  you  were  not  permitted  to  see 
her  alone  last  night.  The  chimney,  you  may 
remember,  began  playing  pranks  just  at  the 
moment  when  Miss  Hollister  and  I  were  about 
to  adjourn  to  the  billiard-room,  so  a  tete-a-tete 
between  you  and  Cecilia  was  impossible." 

108 


I  DELIVER  A  MESSAGE 


"She  told  you  to  see  me?" 

"She  certainly  did.  I  confess  that  my  mes- 
sage does  n't  seem  luminous,  but  I  have  a  feeling 
that  she  meant  to  be  kind.  It  may  be  that  she 
is  giving  you  time  to  disentangle  yourself  from 
the  delectable  Hezekiah's  meshes.  I  can't  eluci- 
date; I  merely  convey  information.  But  answer 
honestly  if  you  can :  has  Cecilia  ever  by  word  or 
act  refused  you?" 

"No,"  he  replied  grimly;  "she  's  never  given 
me  the  chance!" 

He  asked  me  to  luncheon,  and  on  the  way 
back  to  the  inn,  after  inquiring  my  plans  for 
returning  to  town,  he  proposed  that  I  delay  my 
departure  until  the  following  day.  What  he 
wanted,  and  he  put  it  bluntly,  was  a  friend  at 
court,  and  as  I  had  seemingly  satisfied  him  of 
my  entire  good  faith  and  of  my  devotion  to  his 
interests,  he  begged  that  I  prolong  my  stay  in 
Miss  Hollister's  house,  giving  as  my  excuse  the 
condition  of  the  chimneys  of  Hopefield  Manor. 
He  brushed  aside  my  plea  of  other  engagements 
and  appealed  to  our  old  friendship.  He  was 
taking  his  troubles  hard,  and  I  felt  that  he  really 
needed  counsel  and  support  in  the  involved  state 
of  his  affairs.  I  did  not  see  how  my  continued 
presence  under  Miss  Hollister's  roof  could  ma- 
terially assist  him,  and  the  thought  of  remain- 

109 


THE  SIEGE  OP  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

ing  there  when  there  was  no  work  to  be  done 
was  repugnant  to  my  sense  of  professional 
honor;  but  he  was  so  persistent  that  I  finally 
yielded. 

While  we  ate  luncheon  I  sought  by  every  means 
to  divert  his  thoughts  to  other  channels.  After 
we  were  seated  in  the  dining-room  four  other 
men  followed,  exercising  considerable  care  in 
placing  themselves  as  far  from  one  another  as 
possible.  A  few  moments  later  a  motor  hummed 
into  the  driveway,  and  we  heard  its  owner  order- 
ing his  chauffeur  to  return  to  town  and  hold  him- 
self subject  to  telephone  call.  This  latest  arrival 
appeared  shortly  in  the  dining-room,  and  survey- 
ing the  rest  of  us  with  a  disdainful  air,  sought  a 
table  in  the  remotest  corner  of  the  room.  Others 
appeared,  until  eight  in  all  had  entered.  The 
presence  of  these  men  at  this  hour,  their  air  of 
aloofness,  and  the  care  they  exercised  in  isolat- 
ing themselves,  interested  me.  They  appeared 
to  be  gentlemen ;  they  were,  indeed,  suggestive  of 
the  ampler  metropolitan  world;  and  one  of  them 
was  unmistakably  a  foreigner. 

While  Wiggins  appeared  to  ignore  them,  I 
was  conscious  that  he  reviewed  the  successive 
arrivals  with  every  manifestation  of  contempt. 
One  of  these  glum  gentlemen  seemed  familiar; 
I  could  not  at  once  recall  him,  but  something 

110 


I  DELIVER  A  MESSAGE 


in  his  manner  teased  my  memory  for  a  moment 
before  I  placed  him.  Then  it  dawned  upon  me 
that  he  was  the  third  man  I  had  met  in  the  field 
overhanging  the  garden  after  my  eavesdropping 
experience  the  day  before.  I  thought  it  as  well, 
however,  not  to  mention  this  fact,  or  to  speak  of 
the  man  I  had  seen  so  grimly  posted  in  the  midst 
of  the  cornfield.  I  was  an  observer,  a  looker-on,  at 
Hopefield,  and  my  immediate  business  was  the 
collecting  of  information. 

"Will  you  kindly  tell  me,  Wiggy,  who  these 
strange  gentlemen  are  and  just  what  has  brought 
them  here  at  this  hour?  They  seem  greatly  pre- 
occupied, and  the  last  one,  in  particular,  sur- 
veyed you  with  a  murderous  eye.  If  we  could 
be  translated  to  some  such  inn  as  this  in  the  en- 
virons of  Paris,  I  should  conclude  that  a  duel  was 
imminent  and  that  these  gentlemen  were  assem- 
bling to  meet  after  their  coffee  to-morrow  morn- 
ing for  an  affair  of  honor." 

"I  know  them;  they  are  guests  of  the  inn. 
Most  of  them  were  more  or  less  companions  in 
our  procession  across  Europe  last  summer.  The 
one  in  the  tan  suit  is  Henderson ;  you  must  have 
heard  of  him.  The  short  dark  chap  of  atrabilous 
countenance  is  John  Stewart  Dick,  who  pretends 
to  be  a  philosopher.  As  for  the  others  "  — 

He  dismissed  them  with  a  jerk  of  the  head. 
Ill 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

My  wits  struggled  with  his  explanation.  It  is 
my  way  to  wish  to  reduce  information  to  plain 
terms. 

"Are  these  gentlemen,  then,  your  rivals  for 
the  hand  of  Miss  Cecilia  Hollister?  If  so,  they 
are  a  solemn  band  of  suitors,  I  must  confess." 

"You  have  hit  it,  Ames.  They  are  suitors, 
assembled  from  all  parts  of  the  world." 

"Nice-looking  fellows,  except  the  chap  with 
the  monocle,  who  has  just  ordered  rather  more 
liquor  than  a  gentleman  should  drink  at  this 
hour." 

"That  is  Lord  Arrowood.  I  have  feared  at 
times  that  Miss  Octavia  favored  him." 

"Possibly,  but  not  likely.  But  how  long  is 
this  thing  going  to  last?  If  you  fellows  are  go- 
ing to  hang  on  here  until  Miss  Cecilia  Hollister 
has  chosen  one  of  you  for  her  husband,  I  shud- 
der for  your  nerves.  I  imagine  that  any  one  of 
these  gentlemen  is  likely  to  begin  shooting  across 
his  plate  at  any  minute.  Such  a  situation  would 
become  intolerable  very  quickly  if  I  were  in  the 
game  and  forced  to  lodge  here." 

"I  hope,"  replied  Wiggins  with  heat,  "that 
you  don't  imagine  these  fellows  can  crowd  me 
out !  I ' ve  paid  for  a  month's  lodging  in  advance, 
and  if  you  will  stand  by  me  I  'm  going  to  win." 

"Spoken  like  a  man,  my  dear  Wiggins!  You 
112 


I  DELIVER  A  MESSAGE 


may  count  on  me  to  the  sweet  or  bitter  end,  even 
if  I  pull  down  all  the  superb  chimneys  with 
which  Pepperton  adorned  that  house  up  yon- 
der." 

He  silently  clasped  my  hand.  A  little  later  I 
telephoned  from  the  inn  to  my  office  explaining 
my  absence  and  instructing  my  assistant  to 
visit  several  pressing  clients;  and  I  instructed 
the  valet  at  the  Hare  and  Tortoise  to  send  me 
a  week's  supply  of  linen  and  an  odd  suit  or  two. 

At  about  three  o'clock  I  left  Wiggins  in  first- 
rate  spirits  and  set  out  on  my  return  to  Hope- 
field  Manor.  I  felt  the  eyes  of  the  eight  other 
suitors,  who  were  scattered  at  intervals  along 
the  verandah,  glued  to  my  back  as  I  drove  out 
of  the  inn  yard. 


VII 

NINE   SILK   HATS   CROSS   A    STILE 

A  GIRL  in  a  white  sweater  sat  on  a  stone  wall 
and  munched  a  red  apple;  but  this  is  to  antici- 
pate. 

I  had  made  a  wrong  turn  on  leaving  the  Pres- 
cott  Arms,  and  I  came  out  presently  near  Ka- 
tonah  village.  I  got  my  bearings  of  a  shopkeeper 
and  started  again  for  Hopefield  Manor;  but  the 
mid-afternoon  was  warm,  and  the  hills  were 
steep,  and  as  Miss  Hollister's  admirable  cob 
showed  signs  of  weariness,  I  drove  into  a  fence- 
corner  and  loosened  the  mare's  check.  On  a 
sunny  slope  several  hundred  yards  above  the 
highway  lay  an  orchard,  advertised  to  the  lar- 
cenous eye  by  the  ruddiest  of  red  apples.  Not  in 
many  years  had  I  robbed  an  orchard,  and  I  felt 
irresistibly  drawn  toward  the  gnarled  trees,  which 
were  still,  in  their  old  age,  abundantly  fruitful. 

When  I  reached  the  orchard  I  found  it  quite 
isolated,  with  only  fallow  fields,  seamed  with 
stone  fences,  stretching  on  either  hand.  A  spring 
near  by  sent  the  slenderest  of  brooks  flashing 
down  the  slope.  There  was  no  house  in  sight 

114 


NINE  SILK  HATS  CROSS  A  STILE 

anywhere,  and  the  neglected  orchard  flaunted 
its  bright  fruit  with  pathetic  bravado.  I  drew 
down  a  bough  and  plucked  my  first  apple,  tasted, 
and  found  it  good.  At  my  palate's  first  respon- 
sive titillation,  something  whizzed  past  my  ear, 
and  following  the  flight  of  the  missile,  I  saw  an 
apple  of  goodly  size  fall  and  roll  away  into  the 
grass.  I  had  imagined  myself  utterly  alone,  and 
even  now,  as  I  looked  guiltily  around,  no  one  was 
in  sight.  The  apple  had  passed  my  ear  swiftly 
and  at  an  angle  quite  un-Newtonian.  It  had 
been  fairly  aimed  at  my  head,  and  the  law  of 
gravitation  did  not  account  for  it.  As  I  contin- 
ued my  scrutiny  of  the  landscape,  I  was  addressed 
by  a  voice  whose  accents  were  not  objurgatory. 
Rather,  the  tone  was  good-natured  and  indul- 
gent, if  not  indeed  a  trifle  patronizing.  The  words 
were  these:  — 

"Soup  of  the  evening,  beautiful  soupf" 

It  was  then  that,  lifting  my  eyes,  I  beheld,  sit- 
ting lengthwise  of  the  wall,  with  her  feet  drawn 
comfortably  under  her,  a  girl  in  a  white  sweater, 
bareheaded,  munching  an  apple.  There  was  no 
question  of  identity:  it  was  the  girl  whose  head 
behind  the  cashier's  grill  of  the  Asolando  had 
interested  me  on  the  occasion  of  my  second  visit 
to  the  tea-room.  In  soliciting  my  attention  by 

115 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

reciting  a  line  of  verse,  she  had  merely  followed 
the  rule  of  the  tea-room  in  like  circumstances. 
The  casting  of  the  apple  at  my  head  possessed 
the  virtue  of  novelty,  but  now  that  her  shot  was 
fired  and  her  line  spoken,  she  addressed  herself 
again  to  her  apple.  Her  manner  implied  indif- 
ference; but  her  unconcern  was  that  of  a  trout 
not  wishing  to  discourage  the  fisherman,  feign- 
ing a  languid  interest  in  a  familiar  fly  dropped 
at  its  nose.  While  I  tried  to  think  of  something 
to  say,  I  pecked  at  my  own  apple,  but  kept  an 
eye  on  her.  She  concluded  her  repast  calmly 
and  flung  away  the  core. 

"I  mentioned  soup,"  she  remarked.  "The 
courses  are  mixed.  We  have  partaken  of  fruit. 
Are  you  fish,  flesh,  fowl,  or  good  red  herring?" 

"Daughter  of  Eve,  I  w7ill  be  anything  you 
like.  I  'm  obliged  for  the  apple,  and  I  apolo- 
gize for  having  entered  Eden  uninvited." 

"It's  not  my  Eden.  Nobody  invited  me. 
But  it 's  not  too  much  to  say  that  these  apples 
are  grand." 

"I  'm  glad  we  're  both  in  the  same  boat.  I  'm 
a  trespasser  myself.  I  don't  even  know  the 
name  of  the  owner.  But  if  you  have  had  only 
one  apple,  two  more  are  coming  to  you,  if  you 
follow  Atalanta's  precedent." 

"I  don't  follow  precedents,  and  I  've  forgot- 
116 


NINE  SILK  HATS  CROSS  A  STILE 

ten  the  name  of  the  boy  who  threw  the  apples 
in  the  race.  It  does  n't  matter,  though ;  nothing 
matters  very  much." 

Her  hands  clasped  her  knees.  Her  skirt  was 
short,  and  I  was  conscious  that  she  wore  tan 
shoes.  She  continued  to  regard  me  with  lazy 
curiosity.  She  seemed  younger  than  at  the  Aso- 
lando.  Not  more  than  eighteen  times  had  apples 
reddened  on  the  bough  in  her  lifetime!  She  was 
even  slenderer  and  more  youthful  in  her  sweater 
than  in  the  snowy  vestments  of  the  Asolando. 
Her  hair  which,  in  the  glow  of  the  lamp  at  Aso- 
lando cash-desk  had  been  golden,  was  to-day 
burnished  copper,  and  was  brushed  straight  back 
from  her  forehead  and  tied  with  a  black  rib- 
bon. 

"  I  quite  agree  with  your  philosophy.  Nothing 
is  of  great  importance." 

"So  it 's  not  your  orchard?"  she  asked. 

"The  thought  flatters  me.  I  own  no  lands 
nor  ships  at  sea.  I  'm  a  chimney  doctor,  and  if 
necessary  I  '11  apologize  for  it." 

;'You  needn't  submit  testimonials;  I  take 
the  swallows  out  of  my  own  chimneys." 

"That  requires  a  deft  hand,  and  I  'm  sure 
you  're  considerate  of  the  swallows." 

"You  may  come  up  here  and  sit  on  the  wall 
if  you  care  to.  I  saw  you  driving  in  a  trap.  I 

117 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

hope  your  horse  is  n't  afraid  of  motors;  motors 
speed  scandalously  on  that  road." 

"I  am  not  in  the  least  worried  about  my 
horse.  It 's  borrowed.  As  you  remarked,  this 
is  a  nice  orchard.  I  like  it  here." 

"If  you  are  going  to  be  silly,  you  will  find  me 
little  inclined  to  nonsense." 

"Shall  we  talk  of  the  Asolando?  I  haven't 
been  back  since  I  saw  you  there.  And  yet,  —  let 
me  see,  is  n't  this  your  day  there?  " 

She  seemed  greatly  amused;  and  her  laughter 
rose  with  a  fountain-like  spontaneity,  and  fell, 
a  splash  of  musical  sound,  on  the  mellow  air  of 
the  orchard.  She  had  changed  her  position  as 
I  joined  her,  sitting  erect,  and  kicking  her  heels 
lazily  against  the  wall. 

"Mr.  Chimney  Man,  something  terrible  hap- 
pened just  after  you  left  that  afternoon.  I  was 
bounced,  fired;  I  lost  my  job." 

"Incredible!  I  'm  sure  it  was  not  for  any 
good  cause.  I  can  testify  that  you  were  a  model 
of  attention;  you  were  surpassingly  discreet. 
You  repelled  me  in  the  most  delicate  manner 
when  I  intimated  that  I  should  come  often  on 
the  days  that  you  made  the  change." 

"The  sad  part  of  it  was  that  that  was  not 
only  my  last  day  but  my  first !  I  had  never  been 
there  before,  except  for  a  nibble  now  and  then 

118 


NINE  SILK  HATS  CROSS  A  STILE 

when  I  was  in  town.  But  I  could  n't  stand  it. 
It  was  like  being  in  jail;  in  fact,  I  think  jail 
would  be  preferable.  But  I  'm  glad  I  spent  that 
one  day  there.  It  proved  what  I  have  long  be- 
lieved, that  I  am  a  barbarian.  That  poetry  on 
the  walls  of  the  Asolando  made  me  tired,  not  that 
it  is  n't  good  poetry,  but  that  the  walls  of  a 
tea-shop  are  no  place  for  it.  I  always  suspect 
that  people  who  like  their  poetry  framed,  and 
who  have  uplift  mottoes  stuck  in  mirrors  where 
they  can  study  them  while  they  brush  their  hair 
in  the  morning,  never  really  get  any  poetry  inside 
of  them.  You  need  a  place  like  this  for  poetry, 
-an  old  orchard,  with  blue  sky  and  a  crumbly 
wall  to  sit  on.  I  tried  the  Asolando  as  a  lark, 
really,  not  because  I  'm  deeply  entertained  by 
that  sort  of  thing.  They  dispensed  with  my  com- 
pany because  I  remarked  to  one  of  the  silly  girls 
who  are  making  the  Asolando  their  life-work 
that  I  thought  the  English  Pre-Raphaelites  had 
carried  the  dish-face  rather  too  far.  The  girl 
to  whom  I  uttered  this  heresy  was  so  shocked 
she  dropped  a  tea-cup,  —  you  know  how  brittle 
everything  is  in  there,  —  and  I  came  home.  You 
were  really  the  only  adventure  I  got  out  of  my 
day  there.  And  I  did  n't  find  you  entirely  sat- 
isfactory." 

"Thank  you,  Francesca,  for  these  confidences. 
119 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

And  having  lost  your  position  you  are  now  free  to 
roam  the  hills  and  dream  on  orchard  walls.  Your 
scheme  of  life  is  to  my  liking.  I  can  see  with 
half  an  eye  that  you  were  born  for  the  open,  and 
that  the  walls  of  no  prison-house  can  ever  hold 
you  again." 

She  nodded  a  dreamy  acquiescence.  Then 
she  turned  two  very  brown  eyes  full  upon  me 
and  demanded:  — 

"What  is  your  name,  please?" 

I  mentioned  it. 

"And  you  doctor  chimneys?  That  sounds 
very  amusing." 

"I  'm  glad  you  like  it.  Most  people  think  it 
absurd." 

"What  are  you  doing  here?  There's  not  a 
chimney  in  sight." 

"Oh,  I  have  a  commission  in  the  neighbor- 
hood. Hopefield  Manor;  you  may  have  heard 
of  Miss  Hollister's  place." 

"Of  course;  every  one  knows  of  her." 

"And  now  that  I  think  of  it,  it  was  she  about 
whom  you  asked  in  the  Asolando  that  after- 
noon. You  wanted  to  know  what  she  said  about 
the  tea-room." 

"I  remember  perfectly." 

She  was  quiet  for  a  moment,  then  she  threw 
back  her  head  and  laughed  that  rare  laugh  of  hers. 

120 


NINE  SILK  HATS  CROSS  A  STILE 

"You  might  let  me  into  the  joke." 

"It  would  n't  mean  anything  to  you.  I  have 
a  lot  of  private  jokes  that  are  for  my  own  con- 
sumption." 

"Your  way  of  laughing  is  adorable.  I  hope 
to  hear  more  of  it.  In  the  Asolando  you  re- 
pulsed me  in  a  manner  that  won  my  admira- 
tion, but  I  venture  to  say  now  that,  if  you  roam 
these  pastures,  I  am  the  grass  beneath  your  feet; 
and  if  yonder  tuneful  water  be  sacred  to  you,  I 
sit  beside  the  brook  to  learn  its  song." 

:'You  talk  well,  sir,  but  from  your  tone  I  fear 
you  can't  forget  that  we  met  first  in  the  Aso- 
lando. That  day  of  my  life  is  past,  and  I  am  by 
no  means  what  you  might  call  an  Asolandad. 
I  don't  seem  to  impress  you  with  that  fact.  I  'm 
a  human  being,  not  to  be  picked  like  a  red  apple, 
or  trampled  upon  like  grass,  or  listened  to  as 
though  I  were  a  foolish  little  brook.  I  'm  greatly 
given  to  the  highway,  and  I  prefer  macadam. 
I  like  asphalt  pavements,  too,  for  the  matter  of 
that.  I  should  love  a  motor,  but  lacking  the 
coin  I  pedal  a  bicycle.  My  wheel  lies  down  there 
in  the  bushes.  You  see,  Mr.  Chimney  Man,  I 
am  a  plain-spoken  person  and  have  no  intention 
of  deceiving  you.  My  name  was  Francesca  for 
one  day  only.  It  may  interest  you  to  know  that 
my  real  name  is  Hezekiah." 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

"Hezekiah!" 

I  must  have  shouted  it;  she  seemed  startled 
by  my  violence. 

:<You  have  pronounced  it  correctly,"  she  re- 
marked. 

"Then  you  are  Cecilia's  sister  and  Miss  Hoi- 
lister's  niece." 

"Guilty." 

"And  you  live?  " 

"Over  there  somewhere,  beyond  that  ridge," 
and  she  waved  her  hand  vaguely  toward  the 
village  and  laughed  again. 

"  Pray  tell  me  what  this  particular  joke  is:  it 
must  be  immensely  funny,"  I  urged,  struggling 
with  these  new  facts. 

"Oh,  it's  Aunt  Octavia!  She  will  be  the 
death  of  me  yet !  You  know  the  girl  who  waited 
on  Aunt  Octavia  that  afternoon  took  all  that 
artistic  nonsense  as  seriously  as  a  funeral,  and 
she  told  me  after  you  left,  with  the  greatest 
horror,  that  Aunt  Octavia  had  asked  for  a  cock- 
tail!" That  laugh  rippled  off  again  to  carry  joy 
along  the  planet-trails  above  us.  "But  you 
know,"  she  resumed,  "that  Aunt  Octavia  never 
drank  a  cocktail  in  her  life,  —  and  would  n't ! 
She  does  n't  know  a  cocktail  from  soothing 
syrup!  She  pines  for  adventures.  She  is  just 
like  a  boarding-school  girl  who  has  read  her  first 


NINE  SILK  HATS  CROSS  A  STILE 

romance  of  the  young  American  engineer  in  a 
South  American  republic,  shooting  the  insur- 
gents full  of  tortillas  and  marrying  the  presi- 
dent's dark-eyed  daughter.  She  reads  pirate 
books  and  is  crazy  about  buried  chests  and 
pieces  of  eight.  And  they  say  I  'm  just  like  her! 
She  is  the  most  perfectly  killing  person  in  the 
world!" 

Hezekiah  laughed  again. 

So  this  was  the  child  whose  devotion  had  ren- 
dered Wiggins  so  miserable,  and  the  sister  of 
whom  Cecilia  Hollister  and  her  aunt  had  spoken 
so  strangely.  I  had  not  suspected  it.  She  was 
as  unlike  Cecilia  as  possible,  and  the  difference 
lay  in  her  independent  spirit  and  bubbling 
humor.  Her  individuality  was  more  pronounced. 
You  took  her,  without  debate,  on  her  own  ground ; 
and  though  she  had  expressed  a  preference  for 
macadam,  she  seemed  related  to  the  days  when 
maidens  sat  on  sunny  walls  and  were  not  dis- 
appointed in  their  expectation  that  light-footed 
youths,  or  mayhap  winged  sons  of  the  Olym- 
pians, would  reward  patient  waiting.  But  at 
the  same  time  she  struck  the  note  of  modernity. 
Her  flings  at  the  Asolando  were  reassuring;  she 
was  a  healthy-minded,  vigorous  young  woman 
whose  nature  protested  against  affectation  and 
pose.  She  rebelled  against  closed  doors,  whether 

123 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

those  of  town  or  country.  I  am  myself  much 
of  a  cockney,  and  not  averse  to  asphalt  and 
streets  ablaze  with  electric  banners.  My  im- 
agination sprang  to  meet  this  Hezekiah.  I  had, 
in  fact,  a  feeling  that  I  had  waited  for  her  some- 
where in  some  earlier  incarnation.  She  jumped 
down  from  the  wall,  shook  three  apples  from  a 
tree,  and  sustained  them  in  the  air  with  the 
deftness  and  certainty  of  practised  jonglerie. 
Her  absorption  was  complete,  and  when  she 
wearied  of  this  sport,  she  flung  the  apples  away, 
one  after  the  other,  with  a  boy's  free  swing  of 
the  arm.  Herrick  would  have  delighted  in  her; 
Dobson  would  have  spun  her  bright  hair  into  a 
rondeau;  but  only  Aldrich,  with  a  twinkle  in  his 
eye,  could  have  brought  her  up  to  date  in  a 
dozen  chiming  couplets.  I  felt  that  no  matter 
how  much  one  admired  and  respected  this  Heze- 
kiah one  would  never  deal  with  her  in  the  phrases 
of  drawing-rooms.  Her  charming  inadvertences 
made  this  impossible;  and  it  was  the  part  of  dis- 
cretion to  await  her  own  initiative. 

She  had  gone  on  up  to  the  crest  of  the  orchard, 
and  stood  clearly  limned  against  the  sky,  her 
hands  thrust  into  the  pockets  of  her  sweater. 
She  appeared  to  be  intent  upon  something  that 
lay  beyond,  and  half  turned  her  head  and  sum- 
moned me  by  whistling.  I  liked  this  better  than 


NINE  SILK  HATS  CROSS  A  STILE 

the  quotation  method  of  address.  It  was  a  clear 
shrill  pipe,  that  whistle,  and  she  emphasized  it 
further  by  a  peremptory  wave  of  her  arm.  When 


I  stood  beside  her  I  was  surprised  to  find  that 
the  site  commanded  a  wide  area,  including  the 
unmistakable  roofs  and  chimneys  of  Hopefield 
Manor  half  a  mile  distant. 

"You  will  see  something  funny  down  there 
125 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

in  a  minute.  They  are  out  of  sight  now,  but 
there  's  a  stile  —  the  kind  with  steps,  just  be- 
yond those  trees.  It 's  in  a  path  that  leads  from 
the  Prescott  Arms  to  Aunt  Octavia's.  Look!" 

My  eyes  discovered  the  stile.  It  was  set  in  a 
wall  that  was,  she  told  me,  the  boundary  divid- 
ing Hopefield  Manor  from  another  estate  nearer 
our  position. 

Suddenly  a  silk  hat  bobbed  in  the  path  be- 
yond the  stile;  it  rose  as  its  owner  mounted  the 
steps;  it  paused  an  instant  when  the  top  of  the 
stile  was  reached;  then  quickly  descended,  and 
came  toward  us,  a  black  blot  above  a  black  coat. 
I  was  about  to  ask  her  the  meaning  of  this  ap- 
parition when  a  second  silk  hat  bobbed  in  the 
path  and  then  rose  like  its  predecessor,  de- 
scending and  keeping  on  its  way  until  hidden 
from  our  sight  by  shrubbery.  A  third,  fourth, 
fifth,  sixth,  seventh,  eighth,  and  ninth  followed. 
Nine  gentlemen  in  silk  hats  crossing  a  stile  in 
a  lonely  pasture  between  woodlands  ;  so  much 
was  plain  to  the  eye  from  our  vantage-ground; 
but  I  groped  blindly  for  an  explanation  of  this 
spectacle.  The  bobbing  hats  and  dark  coats  sug- 
gested wanderers  from  some  dark  Plutonian 
cave,  bent  upon  mischief  to  the  upper  world. 
Their  step  was  jaunty;  they  moved  as  though 
drilled  to  the  same  cadence. 

126 


NINE  SILK  HATS  CROSS  A  STILE 

We  waited  a  moment,  expecting  that  another 
figure  might  join  the  strange  procession,  but 
nine  was  the  correct  count.  I  looked  down  to 
find  Hezekiah  checking  them  off  on  the  fingers 
of  her  slim  brown  hand. 

"Has  there  been  a  funeral  and  are  they  the 
returning  pall-bearers?"  I  inquired. 

"Not  yet,"  she  replied. 

Her  face  showed  amusement;  the  twitching 
of  her  lips  encouraged  hope  that  another  of  those 
delightful  laughs  was  imminent. 

"It  was  positively  weird,"  I  said.  "It  re- 
minds me  of  a  dream  I  used  to  have,  when  I 
was  a  boy,  of  a  long  line  of  Chinamen  running 
along  the  top  of  a  great  wall,  —  an  intermi- 
nable procession.  I  must  have  dreamed  that 
dream  a  hundred  times.  I  could  hear  the  pig- 
tails of  those  fellows  flapping  against  their  backs 
as  they  trotted  along,  and  the  soft  scraping  of 
their  sandals  on  the  smooth  surface  of  the  wall. 
But  the  pot  hats  are  equally  eerie  and  unaccount- 
able to  my  dull  twentieth-century  senses.  Pray 
tell  me  the  answer,  Hezekiah." 

"Oh,  those  are  Cecilia's  suitors.  They've 
been  to  Aunt  Octavia's  to  tea.  They  're  stay- 
ing at  the  Prescott  Arms  probably." 

"They  're  terribly  formal.  I  can't  get  rid  of 
the  impression  of  sombreness  created  by  those 

127 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

fellows.  You  'd  hardly  expect  them  to  tramp 
cross  country  in  those  duds.  Such  grandeur 
should  go  on  wheels." 

"Oh,  they  are  afraid  of  Aunt  Octavia!  She 
won't  allow  a  motor  on  her  grounds  ;  and  I 
suppose  they  're  afraid  they  might  break  some 
other  rule  if  they  went  on  any  kind  of  wheels. 
She  's  rather  exacting,  you  know,  my  aunt  Oc- 
tavia." 

"I  was  at  the  Prescott  for  luncheon  to-day, 
and  I  must  have  seen  these  gentlemen  there." 

"Oh,  you  were  at  the  Prescott?" 

Almost  for  the  first  time  her  manner  betrayed 
surprise;  but  mischief  danced  in  the  brown  eyes. 
With  Wiggins's  confession  as  to  the  havoc  he 
had  played  with  Hezekiah's  confiding  heart  fresh 
in  my  memory,  I  felt  a  delicacy  about  telling  her 
that  it  was  to  see  Wiggins  that  I  had  visited 
the  inn.  But  to  my  surprise  she  introduced 
the  subject  of  Wiggins  immediately,  and  with 
laughter  struggling  for  one  of  those  fountain-like 
splashes  that  were  so  beguiling. 

"Oh,  Wiggy  is  staying  there!  Do  you  know 
Wiggy?" 

"Know  Wiggy,  Hezekiah?  I  know  no  man 
better." 

"Wiggy  is  no  end  of  fun,  isn't  he?  I've  heard 
him  speak  of  you.  You  are  his  friend  the  Chim- 

128 


NINE  SILK  HATS  CROSS  A  STILE 

neyMan.  He  was  the  last  man  over  the  stile.  Did 
you  notice  that  he  lingered  a  moment  longer  at 
the  top  than  the  others?  From  his  being  the  ninth 
man  I  imagine  that  he  was  the  last  to  leave  the 
house,  and  he  probably  felt  that  this  set  him 
apart  from  the  others.  Wiggy  is  nothing  if  not 
shy  and  retiring." 

A  heart-broken,  love-lorn  girl  did  not  speak 
here.  She  whistled  softly  to  herself  as  we  de- 
scended. The  air  was  cooling  rapidly,  and  the 
west  was  hung  in  scarlet  and  purple  and  gold. 
The  horse  neighed  in  the  road  below,  and  I  knew 
that  I  must  be  on  my  way  to  the  Manor. 

"Hezekiah,"  I  said,  when  I  had  drawn  her 
bicycle  from  its  hiding-place,  "you  'd  better 
leave  your  wheel  here  and  let  me  drive  you 
home.  It 's  late  and  there  's  frost  in  the  air.  I 
imagine  it 's  some  distance  to  your  house." 

"Thank  you,  Mr.  Chimney  Man;  but  it  is 
much  farther  to  Aunt  Octavia's,  for  you  have 
to  make  a  long  circuit  around  the  hills.  And 
besides,  as  we  met  in  the  orchard,  it  would  be 
altogether  too  commonplace  a  conclusion  of  our 
adventure  for  you  to  drive  me  home  behind  a 
mere  horse.  But  tell  me  this :  what  do  you  think 
of  Wiggy's  chances?" 

"Of  winning  your  sister?  I  should  say  from 
my  knowledge  of  Wiggins  that  he  is  a  man  much 

129 


THE  SIEGE  OP  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

given  to  staying  in  a  game  once  the  cards  are 
shuffled." 

She  nodded,  standing  beside  her  wheel,  her 
hands  on  the  bars.  Her  manner  was  contem- 
plative; her  eyes  for  a  moment  were  deep,  shad- 
owless  pools  of  reverie. 

"Then  you  think  he  knows  the  game  ?" 

There  seemed  to  be  something  beneath  the 
surface  meaning  of  her  words,  but  I  answered :  — 

"Wiggy's  affairs  have  been  few,  and  while  he 
may  not  know  the  game  in  all  its  intricacies,  he 
has  a  shrewd  if  rather  slow  mind,  and  besides, 
he  has  asked  my  help  in  the  matter." 

"One  of  these  speak-for-yourself-John  situa- 
tions, then?  Well,  I  should  say,  Mr.  Chimney 
Man,  I  should  say" 

She  made  ready  for  flight,  looking  ahead  to  be 
sure  of  a  clear  thoroughfare. 

"  I  should  say,"  she  concluded,  settling  her 
skirts,  "that  that  indicates  considerable  intelli- 
gence on  Wiggy's  part." 

The  tires  rolled  smoothly  away;  the  gravel 
crunching,  the  pebbles  popping.  The  white 
sweater  clasped  a  straight  back  snugly;  then 
suddenly,  as  the  wheels  gained  momentum,  she 
bent  low  for  a  spurt,  and  her  rapidly  receding 
figure  became  a  gray  blur  in  the  purple  dusk. 


VIII 

CECILIA'S  SILVER  NOTE-BOOK 

Miss  OCTAVIA  was  in  the  gayest  spirits  at  din- 
ner that  night,  and  struck  afield  at  once  with 
one  of  her  amusing  dicta. 

"Human  beings,"  she  said,  "may  be  divided 
into  two  groups,  —  interesting  and  uninterest- 
ing; but  idiots  abound  in  both  classes." 

Cecilia  and  I  discussed  this  with  more  or  less 
gravity,  until  we  had  exhausted  the  possibili- 
ties, Miss  Octavia  following  with  apparent  in- 
terest and  setting  us  off  at  a  new  tangent  when 
our  enthusiasm  lagged.  She  referred  in  no  way 
whatever  to  her  chimneys,  nor  did  she  ask  me 
how  I  had  spent  the  day.  I  felt  the  pleading 
of  Cecilia's  eyes  that  I  should  accept  the  situ- 
ation as  it  stood,  and  having  already  agreed 
to  Wiggins's  suggestion  that  I  abide  in  Miss 
Hollister's  house  as  a  spy,  —  for  this  was  the 
ignoble  fact,  —  I  felt  the  threads  of  conspiracy 
binding  me  fast.  So  far  as  my  hostess  was  con- 
cerned, I  was  now  less  a  guest  than  a  member  of 
the  household. 

The  variety  of  subjects  that  Miss  Octavia 
131 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

suggested  was  amazing.  From  aeronautics  to 
the  negro  question,  from  polar  exploration  to 
the  political  conditions  in  Bulgaria,  she  passed 
with  the  jauntiest  insouciance  and  apparently 
with  a  considerable  fund  of  information  to  sup- 
port her  positions.  She  knew  many  people  in 
all  walks  of  life.  I  remember  that  she  spoke 
with  the  greatest  freedom  of  the  Governor  of 
Indiana,  whom  she  had  met  on  a  railway  journey. 
She  quoted  this  gentleman's  utterances  with 
keenest  zest.  His  anecdotal  range  she  declared 
to  be  the  widest  and  raciest  she  had  ever  en- 
countered in  a  considerable  acquaintance  with 
public  characters.  She  thought  the  Hoosier 
statesman  eminently  fitted  by  reason  of  his 
acute  sense  of  humor  for  the  office  of  president. 
"That  man,"  said  Miss  Octavia,  "was  splen- 
didly equipped  for  handling  the  most  perplex- 
ing affairs  of  state.  It  seemed  absurd  that  his 
public  services  should  be  limited  to  the  petty 
business  of  a  commonwealth  whose  chief  pro- 
ducts are  pawpaws,  persimmons,  and  politics. 
The  governor  told  me  that  before  his  election 
he  had  been  sorely  beset  by  reformers.  They 
had  teased  him  persistently  to  express  his  views 
on  the  most  absurd  questions.  They  wanted 
him  to  promise  all  manner  of  things  before  they 
gave  him  their  support.  And  finally,  to  appease 

132 


CECILIA'S  SILVER  NOTE-BOOK 


them,  he  answered  that  he  would  combine  their 
questions  in  one  and  reply  to  all  that,  the  earth 
being  round,  he  would,  if  elected,  do  all  in  his 
power  to  make  it  square.  This  he  found  to  be 
perfectly  satisfactory  to  the  reformers.  Solo- 
mon was  a  mere  tyro  in  wisdom  compared  with 
that  man.  You  would  n't  expect  so  much  sa- 
gacity in  one  who,  by  his  own  frank  confession, 
had  been  raised  on  fried  meat,  and  who  declared 
that  if  grand  opera  were  attempted  in  his  state 
he  would  suspend  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus 
and  call  out  the  militia  to  suppress  it." 

I  was  not  at  all  sure  whether  the  governor 
whom  she  quoted  with  so  great  delight  was  an 
actual  person  or  a  myth  upon  whom  Miss  Oc- 
tavia  hung  her  own  whimsicalities;  but  as  if  to 
rebuke  my  skepticism,  she  dwelt  on  this  person- 
age at  considerable  length,  inviting  my  own  and 
Cecilia's  questions  as  to  her  knowledge  of  him. 

"I  didn't  suppose,"  remarked  Cecilia  pro- 
vocatively, "that  Indiana  was  really  a  place 
that  you  could  go  to  on  trains,  but  a  kind  of 
imaginary  kingdom  like  Eppenwelzen-Sarkeld 
or  Griinewald  or  Zenda,  or  an  extinct  place  in 
Asia  where  lions  crouch  upon  the  ruins  in  the 
moonlight." 

"Indiana,"  said  Miss  Octavia  sternly,  "is  a 
commonwealth  for  which  I  have  always  had 

133 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

the  greatest  veneration,  and  which,  in  due 
course,  I  hope  to  visit.  In  the  early  seventies 
my  father,  the  late  Hezekiah  Hollister,  invested 
a  considerable  part  of  his  fortune  in  Indiana 
farm-mortgages.  On  these  investments  the  in- 
terest was  paid  with  only  the  greatest  reluc- 
tance and  in  the  most  fitful  fashion.  This,  I 
think,  argues  for  a  keen  sense  of  humor  in  the 
Hoosier  people.  Interest  is  something  that  I 
should  never  think  of  paying  in  any  circum- 
stances, as  I  have  always  considered  it  immoral. 
My  father,  keenly  enjoying  the  playfulness  of 
the  Hoosiers  in  this  particular,  saved  himself 
from  loss  merely  by  raising  the  price  of  baby- 
cabs  throughout  the  world,  and  gave  the  mort- 
gages as  a  free  gift  to  the  Society  for  the  Amelio- 
ration of  the  Condition  of  Good  Indians.  All 
the  good  Indians  being  dead,  the  society  had 
no  expenses  except  officers'  salaries,  and  as  the 
Hoosiers  gave  up  politics  for  a  season  and  raised 
enough  corn  to  pay  their  debts,  the  society  be- 
came enormously  rich." 

As  we  rose  from  the  table  Miss  Octavia  de- 
clared that  she  must  show  me  the  pie-pantry. 
I  was  now  so  accustomed  to  her  ways  that  I 
should  not  have  been  in  the  least  surprised  if 
she  had  proposed  opening  a  steel  vault  filled  with 
a  mummified  Egyptian  dynasty. 

134 


CECILIA'S  SILVER  NOTE-BOOK 


"The  gentleman  who  built  this  house,"  she 
explained,  "had  already  grown  rich  in  the  manu- 
facture of  the  famous  ribless  umbrella  before 
he  acquired  a  second  fortune  from  a  nostrum 
warranted  to  cure  dyspepsia.  He  was  inordi- 
nately fond  of  pies,  and  in  order  that  this  form 
of  pastry  might  never  be  absent  from  his  home, 
he  had  a  special  pantry  built  to  which  he  might 
adjourn  at  his  pleasure  without  any  fear  of  find- 
ing the  cupboard  bare." 

She  led  the  way  through  the  butler's  pantry 
and  into  a  small  cupboarded  room  adjoining 
the  table-linen  closet.  At  her  command  the 
butler  threw  open  the  doors,  and  disclosed  lines 
of  shelves  so  arranged  as  to  accommodate,  in 
the  most  compact  and  orderly  form  imaginable, 
several  dozens  of  pies.  These  pastries,  in  the 
pans  as  they  had  come  from  the  oven,  peeped 
out  invitingly.  Miss  Octavia  explained  their 
presence  in  her  usual  impressive  manner. 

"It  was  one  of  the  conditions  of  the  sale  of 
this  house  to  me  by  the  original  owner's  execu- 
tors that  the  pie-vault  should  be  kept  filled  at 
all  times,  whether  I  am  in  residence  here  or  not. 
He  felt  greatly  indebted  to  pie  for  the  success 
of  the  dyspepsia  cure.  It  had  widened  and  stead- 
ily increased  the  market  for  the  cure,  and  pie 
was  to  him  a  consecrated  and  sacred  food.  It 

135 


THE  SIEGE  OP  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

was  his  habit  to  eat  a  pie  every  night  before 
retiring,  and  on  the  nightmares  thus  inspired 
he  had  planned  the  strategy  of  all  his  cam- 
paigns against  dyspepsia.  The  man  had  ele- 
ments of  greatness,  and  these  shelves  are  a 
monument  to  his  genius.  In  order  to  keep  per- 
fect my  title  to  this  property  it  is  necessary  for 
me  to  maintain  a  pastry-cook,  and  as  I  do  not 
myself  care  greatly  for  pie  — though  contrary  to 
common  experience  I  have  found  it  a  splendid 
antephialtic  —  the  total  output  is  distributed 
among  the  people  of  the  neighborhood  every 
second  day.  The  station  agent  at  Bedford  is  a 
heavy  consumer,  and  a  retired  physician  at  Mt. 
Kisco  has  a  standing  order  for  a  dozen  a  week. 
My  niece  Hezekiah,  of  whom  you  have  heard 
me  speak,  is  partial  to  a  particular  type  of  pie 
and  one  only.  It  is  the  gooseberry  that  delights 
Hezekiah's  palate,  and  under  G  in  File  3,  in  the 
corner  behind  you,  there  is  even  now  a  goose- 
berry pie  that  I  shall  send  to  Hezekiah,  who, 
for  reasons  I  need  not  explain,  does  not  now 
visit  here." 

"But  the  dyspepsia  man — you  speak  of 
him  as  though  he  were  dead." 

"Your  assumption  is  correct,  Mr.  Ames.  The 
builder  of  Hopefield  died  only  a  few  weeks  after 
he  had  established  himself  in  this  house.  Hav- 

136 


CECILIA'S  SILVER  NOTE-BOOK 


ing  entered  upon  the  enjoyment  of  his  well- 
earned  leisure,  and  made  it  unnecessary  that 
he  should  ever  go  pieless  to  bed,  he  gave  him- 
self up  for  a  fortnight  to  a  mad  indulgence  in 
meringues,  and  died  after  great  suffering,  stead- 
ily refusing  his  own  medicine  to  the  end." 

We  still  lingered  in  the  pie-crypt  after  this 
diverting  recital,  while  Miss  Octavia  enter- 
tained me  with  her  views  on  pies. 

"The  soul-color  of  pies  varies  greatly,  Mr. 
Ames.  It  has  always  seemed  to  me  that  apple- 
pie  stands  for  the  homelier  virtues  of  our  civil- 
ization; it  is  substantial,  nutritious  and  filling. 
The  custard  and  lemon  varieties  are  feminine, 
and  do  not,  perhaps  for  that  reason,  appeal  to 
me.  Cherry-pie  at  its  best  is  the  last  and  final 
expression  of  the  pie  genus,  and  where  cocks 
have  been  careful  in  eliminating  the  seeds,  and 
the  juice  hasn't  made  sodden  dough  of  the  crust, 
a  cherry-pie  meets  the  soul's  highest  demands. 
Grape  and  raisin-pie  are  on  my  cook's  index 
expurgatorius ;  I  consider  them  neither  palata- 
ble nor  respectable.  But  rhubarb  is  the  most 
odious  pie  of  all,  in  my  judgment.  It  suggests 
the  pharmacopoeia  —  only  that  and  no  thing  more. 
You  will  pardon  me  for  mentioning  the  matter, 
but  one  of  my  gardeners,  a  Swiss,  crawled  in 
here  two  nights  ago  and  stole  a  rhubarb-pie, 

137 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

which,  I  rejoice  to  say,  made  him  hideously  ill. 
The  R's,  you  will  notice,  are  placed  near  the 
floor  and  within  easy  reach  of  any  larcenous  hand. 
The  ease  of  his  approach  was  his  undoing.  The 
pumpkin  variety  reaches  almost  the  same  lofty 
heights  as  the  cherry.  When  not  over-dosed 
with  spices,  a  pumpkin-pie  conveys  a  sense  of 
the  October  landscape  that  is  the  despair  of 
the  best  painters.  In  the  gooseberry  I  find  a 
certain  raciness,  or  if  I  may  use  the  expression, 
zip,  that  is  highly  stimulating.  Both  qualities 
you  will  observe  in  Hezekiah  if  you  come  to  know 
her  well.  The  thought  of  blackberry  or  raspberry- 
pie  depresses  me,  but  huckleberry  buoys  the  spirit 
again.  The  huckleberry  seems  to  me  to  voice  a 
protest,  and  unless  managed  with  the  greatest 
neatness  and  circumspection  it  is  bound  to  stim- 
ulate the  laundry  business.  As  any  one  who 
would  eat  a  cooked  strawberry  would  steal  a 
sick  baby's  rattle,  I  need  hardly  say  that  the 
strawberry -pies,  even  in  their  season,  shall  have 
no  place  on  these  shelves." 

"So  it  is  the  gooseberry  that  Miss  Hezekiah 
prefers,"  I  remarked  with  feigned  carelessness, 
as  we  walked  toward  the  library. 

"It  is,  Mr.  Ames;  and  I  trust  that  your  in- 
quiry implies  no  reflection  on  Hezekiah's  judg- 
ment." 

138 


CECILIA'S  SILVER  NOTE-BOOK 


"Quite  the  reverse,  Miss  Hollister.  It  is  not 
going  too  far  to  say  that  I  have  formed  a  high 
opinion  of  Miss  Hezekiah,  and  that  I  should 
deal  harshly  with  any  one  who  ventured  to  crit- 
icise her  in  any  particular." 

"Will  you  kindly  inform  me  just  when  you 
made  the  acquaintance  of  my  younger  niece? 
I  should  greatly  dislike  to  believe  you  guilty 
of  dissimulation,  but  when  Hezekiah  was  men- 
tioned in  the  gun-room  last  night  your  silence 
led  me  to  assume  that  she  was  wholly  unknown 
to  you." 

"She  was,  I  assure  you,  at  the  dinner-hour 
last  night;  but  I  met  her  quite  by  chance  this 
afternoon,  in  an  orchard  at  no  great  distance 
from  this  house." 

I  did  not  think  it  necessary  to  mention  the 
Asolando,  as  Hezekiah  herself  had  taken  pains 
to  avoid  her  aunt  in  the  tea  room.  It  was  clear 
that  my  words  had  interested  Miss  Octavia. 
She  paused  in  the  hall,  and  bent  her  head  in 
thought  for  a  moment. 

"May  I  inquire  whether  she  referred  in  any 
way  to  Mr.  Wiggins  in  this  interview  ?  " 

"She  did,  Miss  Hollister,"  I  replied;  and  I 
could  not  help  smiling  as  I  remembered  Heze- 
kiah's  laughter  at  the  mention  of  my  friend. 
My  smile  did  not  escape  Miss  Octavia. 

139 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

"Just  how,  may  I  ask,  did  she  refer  to  Mr. 
Wiggins  ?  " 

"As  though  she  thought  him  the  funniest  of 
human  beings.  She  laughed  deliciously  at  the 
bare  mention  of  his  name." 

"It  was  not  your  impression,  then,  that  she 
was  deeply  enamored  of  him;  that  she  was  eat- 
ing her  heart  out  for  him  ?" 

"Decidedly  not,  Miss  Hollister.  She  gave 
me  quite  a  different  idea." 

:'You  relieve  me  greatly.  Mr.  Wiggins's  sense 
of  humor  is  the  slightest,  and  I  should  not  in 
the  least  fancy  him  for  Hezekiah.  And  besides, 
I  am  not  yet  ready  to  arrange  a  marriage  for 
her." 

She  laid  the  slightest  stress  on  the  final  pro- 
noun. It  was  a  fair  inference,  then,  that  Miss 
Cecilia's  affairs  were  being  "arranged;"  when 
they  had  been  determined,  a  husband  would 
be  found  for  Hezekiah.  But  had  there  ever 
existed  before,  anywhere  in  the  Copernican  sys- 
tem, a  wealthy  aunt  so  delightfully  irresponsi- 
ble, so  vertiginous  in  her  mental  processes,  so 
happily  combining  the  maddest  quixotism  with 
the  bold  spirit  of  the  Elizabethan  mariners  ! 
My  faith  in  the  real  sweetness  and  kindliness  of 
her  nature  was  unshaken  by  her  capriciousness. 
I  did  not  doubt  that  her  intentions  toward  her 

140 


CECILIA'S  SILVER  NOTE-BOOK 


nieces  were  the  friendliest,  no  matter  what 
strange  devices  she  might  employ  to  bend  those 
young  women  to  her  purposes. 

She  disappeared  in  the  hall  without  excuse, 
and  I  entered  the  library  to  find  Cecilia  sitting 
alone  by  the  fire.  She  put  aside  a  book  she  had 
been  reading,  and  seeing  that  her  aunt  had  not 
followed  me,  asked  at  once  as  to  my  visit  to  the 
inn. 

"I  conveyed  your  message,"  I  answered;  "but 
you  have  seen  Mr.  Wiggins  since,  unless  I  am 
greatly  mistaken." 

"Yes;  he  called  this  afternoon.  We  had  sev- 
eral callers  at  the  tea-hour.  I  had  rather  ex- 
pected you  back." 

"The  fact  is,"  I  replied,  "that  after  I  had 
taken  luncheon  at  the  Prescott  Arms,  I  got  lost 
among  the  hills,  and  while  in  the  act  of  robbing 
an  apple-orchard  I  came  most  unexpectedly 
upon  your  sister." 

"Hezekiah!" 

"The  same;  and  oddly  enough,  I  had  met 
her  before,  though  I  did  n't  realize  it  was  she 
until  the  meeting  in  the  orchard.  It  was  in  the 
Asolando  that  I  saw  her;  she  was  at  the  cashier's 
wicket  the  afternoon  I  met  your  aunt  there." 

She  seemed  puzzled  for  a  moment;  then 
her  eyes  brightened,  and  she  laughed;  but  her 

141 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

laugh  was  not  like  Hezekiah's.  Cecilia's  mirth 
had  its  own  expression.  It  was  touched  with  a 
sweet  gravity,  and  her  laughter  was  such  as 
one  would  expect  from  the  Milo  if  that  divine 
marble  were  to  yield  to  mirth.  Cecilia  grew 
upon  me:  there  was  magic  in  her  loveliness;  she 
was  a  finished  product.  It  seemed  inconceivable 
that  she  and  the  fair-haired  girl  with  whom  I  had 
exchanged  banter  in  the  upland  orchard  were 
daughters  of  one  mother. 

''You  have  given  me  information,  Mr.  Ames. 
I  did  not  know  that  Hezekiah  had  ever  been 
connected  with  the  Asolando." 

"Oh,  it  was  only  that  one  historic  day.  She 
says  the  place  was  unbearable.  She  jarred  the 
holiest  chords  of  the  divine  lyre  by  harsh  com- 
ments on  the  Pre-Raphaelite  profile.  One  of  the 
devotees  was  so  shocked  that  she  dropped  a 
plate  or  something,  and,  to  put  it  coarsely,  Heze- 
kiah got  the  bounce." 

My  description  of  Hezekiah's  brief  tenure  of 
office  at  the  Asolando  seemed  to  amuse  Cecilia 
greatly. 

"There  is  no  one  like  my  sister,"  she  said; 
"there  never  was  and  there  never  will  be  any 
one  half  so  charming.  Hezekiah  is  an  original, 
who  breaks  all  the  rules  and  yet  always  sends 
the  ball  over  the  net.  And  it  is  because  she  is 

142 


CECILIA'S  SILVER  NOTE-BOOK 


so  inexpressibly  dear  and  precious  that  I  am 
anxious  that  nothing  shall  ever  hurt  her,  — 
nothing  mar  the  sweet,  beautiful  child-spirit  in 
her." 

It  was  my  turn  to  laugh  now.  Cecilia's  man- 
ifestation of  maternal  solicitude  for  Hezekiah 
seemed  absurd.  For  Hezekiah,  in  her  way, 
was  older ;  Hezekiah  had  raced  with  Diana 
and  plucked  arrows  from  her  girdle ;  she  had 
heard  Homer  at  the  roadside  singing  of  Achilles' 
shield. 

"Hezekiah  is  reasonably  safe,  I  should  say, 
because  she  is  so  amazingly  swift  of  foot  and 
eye,  and  so  nimble  of  speech.  She  is  not  to  be 
caught  in  a  net  or  tripped  with  a  word." 

"I  suppose  that  is  so,"  remarked  Cecilia 
soberly.  <:'You  thought  her  happy  when  you 
met  her  to-day?  She  did  not  strike  you  as  being 
a  girl  with  a  wound  in  her  heart?  She  was  n't 
particularly  triste?" 

"Not  more  so  than  sunlight  on  rippled  water 
or  the  song  of  the  lark  ascending." 

"Of  course  you  made  no  reference  to  Mr. 
Wiggins?  If  I  had  imagined  you  would  meet 
her  I  should  have"  — 

She  ended  with  an  embarrassment  that  I 
now  understood,  and  I  broke  in  cheerfully. 

"We  did  mention  him.  She  asked  me  if  I 
143 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

had  seen  him,  and  it  was  the  thought  of  him 
that  evoked  her  merriest  laughter." 

She  shook  her  head  and  sighed;  then  her  man- 
ner changed  abruptly. 

;' You  delivered  my  message  to  Mr.  Wiggins?" 

"I  did.  He  is  badly  out  of  sorts  and  sees  no- 
thing clearly.  He  is  very  bitter  toward  your 
aunt.  He  thinks  she  has  treated  him  outrage- 
ously." 

"Aunt  Octavia  has  done  nothing  of  the  kind," 
she  replied  with  spirit.  "Mr.  Wiggins  has  no 
right  to  speak  of  Aunt  Octavia  save  in  terms  of 
kindness.  If  her  wits  are  sharper  than  his,  it 
is  not  her  fault,  that  I  can  see!  But  there  are 
matters  here  that  I  do  not  understand,  Mr. 
Ames.  I  trust  you,  as  my  aunt  evidently  does, 
or  I  should  not  be  talking  to  you  as  I  am;  and 
I  am  moved  to  ask  a  favor  of  you,  —  a  favor 
of  considerable  weight  in  view  of  the  fact  that 
you  are  a  professional  man  with  doubtless  many 
pressing  calls  upon  your  time." 

I  bowed  humbly  before  this  compliment.  My 
time  had  been  lightly  appraised  by  Miss  Octavia 
and  again  by  Wiggins.  A  long  telegram  from 
my  assistant  that  reached  me  while  I  dressed 
for  dinner  had  urged  my  immediate  attendance 
upon  my  office.  Some  of  my  best  clients,  now 
reopening  their  houses  for  the  winter,  were  in 

144 


CECILIA'S  SILVER  NOTE-BOOK 


desperate  straits.  From  the  number  of  appeals 
for  help  reported  by  my  assistant  I  judged  that 
all  the  chimneys  in  the  republic  had  grown  ob- 
streperous. But  Father  Time  learned  early  in 
his  career  that  to  women  his  scythe's  edge  has 
no  terrors.  In  this  instance  I  must  admit  that 
if  Cecilia  Hollister  wished  to  cut  a  few  days  out 
of  my  reasonable  expectation  of  life  it  was  not 
for  me  to  plead  sick  chimneys  as  an  excuse  for 
declining  to  serve  her. 

In  fact,  I  had  never  found  myself  so  close  upon 
the  heels  of  the  adventure  that  we  all  crave  as 
since  making  the  acquaintance  of  the  Hollisters. 
Octavia  Hollisters  do  not  occur  in  the  life  of 
every  young  man,  and  both  Cecilia  and  Hezekiah 
had  taken  strong  hold  upon  my  imagination. 
Wiggins's  place  among  the  dramatis  personee 
would  in  itself  have  compelled  my  sympathetic 
attention;  and  the  nine  silk  hats  that  I  had  seen 
bobbing  over  the  stile  still  danced  before  my 
eyes. 

"Miss  Hollister,"  I  said,  "my  time  is  yours 
to  command.  My  office  is  well  organized,  and 
I  am  sure  that  my  assistant  is  equal  to  any  de- 
mands that  may  be  made  upon  him.  Pray  state 
in  what  manner  I  may  serve  you." 

"I  am  going  far,  I  know,  Mr.  Ames,  but  I  beg 
that  you  will  not  be  in  haste  to  leave  my  aunt's 

145 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

house.  She  must  have  been  strongly  prejudiced 
in  your  favor,  or  she  would  not  have  asked  you 
here  on  so  short  acquaintance.  I  am  confident 
that  she  has  no  thought  of  your  leaving.  She 
expressed  her  great  liking  for  you  at  luncheon, 
and  I  am  sure  that  she  will  see  to  it  that)  you 
do  not  lack  for  entertainment.  I  assume  that 
you  must  have  gathered  from  what  Mr.  Wig- 
gins told  you  of  my  acquaintance  with  him  the 
peculiar  plight  in  which  I  am  placed." 

I  bowed.  If  she  groped  in  the  dark  and  needed 
my  help  in  finding  the  light,  I  was  not  the  man 
to  desert  her.  I  had  dropped  my  plumb-line 
into  too  many  dark  chimneys  not  to  feel  the 
fascination  of  mystery.  As  I  expressed  again 
my  entire  willingness  to  abide  at  Hopefield 
Manor  as  long  as  she  wished,  the  footman  an- 
nounced Mr.  Hartley  Wiggins. 

We  had  hardly  exchanged  greetings  before 
another  man  was  announced,  and  then  another. 
I  should  say  that  it  was  at  intervals  of  about 
three  minutes  that  the  sedate  servant  appeared 
in  the  curtained  doorway  and  announced  a 
caller,  until  nine  had  been  admitted.  My  spirits 
soared  high  as  the  gentlemen  from  the  Pres- 
cott  Arms  appeared  one  after  the  other.  The 
earlier  arrivals  rose  to  greet  the  later  ones,  — 
and  as  they  were  all  hi  evening  clothes  I  expe- 

146 


CECILIA'S  SILVER  NOTE-BOOK 


rienced,  as  when  I  had  seen  the  same  gentle- 
men in  their  afternoon  raiment  crossing  the  stile, 
a  sense  of  something  fantastic  and  eerie  in  them. 
There  was  nothing  unusual  about  them,  taken 
as  individuals;  collectively  they  were  like  life-size 
studies  in  black  and  white  that  had  stepped  from 
their  frames  for  an  evening's  recreation.  Cecilia 
introduced  me  in  the  order  of  their  arrival;  and 
in  the  interest  of  brevity,  and  to  avoid  confusion, 
I  tabulate  them  here,  with  a  notation  as  to  their 
residence  and  occupation,  taking  such  data  from 
the  notebook  in  which,  at  subsequent  dates,  I 
set  down  the  facts  which  are  the  basis  of  this 
chronicle. 

HARTLEY  WIGGINS,  Lawyer  and  Farmer; 
Hare  and  Tortoise  Club,  New  York. 

LINNAEUS  B.  HENDERSON,  Planter;  Roanoke, 
Virginia. 

CECIL  HUGH,  LORD  ARROWOOD,  no  occupa- 
tion; Arrowood,  Hants,  England. 

DANIEL  P.  ORMSBY,  Manufacturer  of  Knit 
Goods;  Utica,  New  York. 

S.  FORREST  HUME,  Lecturer  on  Scandinavian 
Literature,  Occidental  University;  Long  Trail, 
Oklahoma. 

JOHN  STEWART  DICK,  Pragmatist;  Omaha, 
Nebraska. 

147 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

PENDENNIS  J.  ARBUTHNOT,  Banker  and  Horse- 
man; Lexington,  Kentucky. 

PERCIVAL  B.  SHALLENBERGER,  Novelist  and 
Small  Fruits;  Sycamore,  Indiana. 

GEORGE  W.  GORSE,  Capitalist;  Redlands, 
California. 

We  rose  and  stood  in  our  several  places  when, 
a  moment  later,  Miss  Octavia  entered.  She 
greeted  the  suitors  graciously,  and  then,  in  her 
most  charming  manner,  called  one  after  the 
other  to  sit  beside  her  on  a  long  davenport,  the 
time  apportioned  being  weighed  with  nicety, 
so  that  none  might  feel  himself  slighted  or  pre- 
ferred. These  interviews  consumed  more  than 
half  an  hour,  and  the  movement  thus  occa- 
sioned gave  considerable  animation  to  the  scene. 

It  may  seem  ridiculous  that  nine  gentlemen 
thus  paying  court  to  a  young  woman  should 
call  upon  her  at  the  same  hour,  but  I  must  say 
that  the  gravity  of  the  suitors  and  the  entire 
sobriety  of  Cecilia  did  not  affect  me  humorously. 
Nor  did  I  feel  at  all  out  of  place  in  this  strange 
company.  I  found  myself  agreeably  engaged 
for  several  minutes  in  discussing  Ibsen  with  the 
Oklahoma  professor,  who  proved  to  be  a  de- 
lightful fellow.  His  experience  of  life  was  ap- 
parently wide,  and  he  told  me  with  an  engaging 

148 


CECILIA'S  SILVER  NOTE-BOOK 


frankness  of  his  meeting  with  the  Hollisters 
in  France  and  of  his  pursuit  of  them  over 
many  weary  parasangs  the  previous  summer. 
As  no  one  had  elected  his  courses  in  the  univer- 
sity at  the  beginning  of  the  fall  term,  he  had 
been  granted  a  leave  of  absence,  and  this  ac- 
counted for  his  freedom  to  press  his  suit  at  Hope- 
field  Manor  at  this  season.  He  was  a  big  fellow, 
with  clean-cut  features,  and  bore  himself  with 
a  manly  determination  that  I  found  attractive. 

He  alone,  I  may  say,  of  the  nine  men  who 
had  thus  appeared  in  Miss  Octavia's  library, 
met  me  in  a  cordial  spirit.  Even  Wiggins  seemed 
not  wholly  pleased  to  find  me  there  again, 
though  he  had  asked  me  to  remain.  The  man- 
ner of  the  others  expressed  either  disdain,  sus- 
picion, or  fierce  hostility,  and  Lord  Arrowood, 
who  was  older  than  the  others  and  a  man  well 
advanced  toward  middle  age,  glared  at  me  so 
savagely  with  his  pale  blue  eyes,  that  I  should 
have  laughed  in  his  face  in  any  other  circum- 
stances. 

When  the  last  man  rose  from  the  davenport, 
Miss  Octavia  called  me  to  her  side.  She  seemed 
contrite  at  having  neglected  me  during  the  day, 
but  assured  me  that  later  she  hoped  to  place  an 
entire  day  at  my  disposal.  As  we  talked,  the 
nine  suitors  sat  in  a  semicircle  about  Cecilia, 

149 


THE  SIEGE  OP  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

while  the  group  listened  to  an  anecdotal  ex- 
change between  Professor  Hume  and  Hender- 
son, the  Virginia  planter.  My  opinion  of  Ce- 
cilia Hollister  as  a  girl  of  high  spirit,  able  to 
carry  off  any  situation  no  matter  how  difficult, 
rose  to  new  altitudes  as  I  watched  her.  If  this 
strange  wooing  en  bloc  was  not  to  her  liking, 
she  certainly  made  the  best  of  it.  She  capped 
Henderson's  best  story  with  a  better  one,  in 
negro  dialect,  and  no  professional  entertainer 
could  have  improved  upon  her  recital.  As  she 
finished  we  all  joined  in  the  general  laugh,  Lord 
Arrowood's  guffaw  booming  out  a  trifle  bois- 
terously, when  Miss  Octavia  quietly  rose  and 
excused  herself.  About  five  minutes  later,  when 
the  company  had  plunged  into  another  series  of 
anecdotes,  I  suddenly  became  conscious  that 
the  fireplace,  near  which  I  sat,  had  all  at  once 
begun  to  act  strangely.  Much  in  the  manner 
of  its  performance  the  previous  night,  it  abruptly 
gasped  and  choked;  the  smoke  ballooned  in  a 
great  swirl  and  then  poured  out  into  the  room. 

After  my  examination  of  the  flues  in  the  morn- 
ing, I  had  dismissed  them  from  my  mind,  and 
this  extraordinary  behavior  of  the  library  fire- 
place astounded  me.  It  is  not  in  reason  that  a 
perfectly  normal  fireplace,  built  in  the  most 
approved  fashion,  and  with  chimneys  that  rise 

150 


CECILIA'S  SILVER  NOTE-BOOK 


into  as  clear  an  ether  as  October  can  bestow, 
could  act  so  monstrously  without  the  interven- 
tion of  some  malign  agency.  We  had  discussed 
all  the  possibilities  the  previous  night,  and  I 
was  not  anxious  to  hear  further  lay  opinions. 
The  chimney's  conduct  was  annoying,  the  more 
so  that  to  my  professional  sense  it  was  inex- 
plicable. 

Lord  Arrowood  had  retreated  discreetly  to- 
ward the  door,  and  the  others  had  risen  and 
stood  close  behind  Cecilia,  whose  gaze  was  bent 
rather  accusingly  upon  me. 

A  dark  thought  had  crossed  my  mind.  As 
our  eyes  met,  I  felt  that  she  had  read  my  sus- 
picions and  did  not  wholly  reject  them.  Hen- 
derson was  valiantly  poking  the  logs,  while  one 
or  two  of  the  other  men  gave  him  the  benefit  of 
their  advice.  I  crossed  the  hall  to  the  drawing- 
room,  but  no  one  was  there.  I  went  back  to  the 
billiard-room,  but  saw  nothing  of  Miss  Octavia. 
Cecilia  had  rung  for  the  footman,  and  I  passed 
him  in  the  hall  on  his  way  to  answer  her  sum- 
mons. I  stopped  him  with  an  inquiry  on  my 
lips;  but  I  could  not  ask  the  question;  even  in 
my  perplexity  as  to  the  cause  of  the  chimney's 
remarkable  performances  I  did  not  so  far  forget 
myself  as  to  communicate  my  suspicion  to  a 
servant. 

151 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

"Nothing,  Thomas,"  I  said;  and  the  man 
passed  on. 

It  was  possible,  of  course,  that  Miss  Octavia 
knew  more  than  she  cared  to  tell  about  the  er- 
ratic ways  of  the  library  chimney,1  or  she  might 
indeed  be  the  cause  of  its  vagaries.  Sufficient 
time  had  elapsed  after  her  retirement  from  the 
library  to  allow  her  to  gain  the  roof  and  clap  a 
stopper  on  the  chimney-pot.  This  did  not  how- 
ever account  for  the  fact  that  on  the  previous 
evening  she  had  been  present  in  the  library  when 
the  same  chimney  had  manifested  a  similar  sulki- 
ness.  I  was  still  pondering  these  things  when  I 
heard  loud  laughter  from  the  library,  and  on 
returning  found  the  logs  again  blazing  in  the 
fireplace,  from  which  the  smoke  rose  demurely 
in  the  flue. 

"This  fireplace  is  like  a  geyser,  Mr.  Ames," 
said  Cecilia,  "and  spurts  smoke  at  regular  in- 
tervals. As  I  remember,  the  clock  on  the  stair 
was  striking  nine  last  night  when  the  smoke 
poured  out,  and  there  — it  is  striking  nine  now!" 

She  tossed  her  head  slightly ;  and  this  was,  I 
thought,  in  disdain  of  the  suspicion  that  must 
still  have  shown  itself  a  little  stubborn!}7  in  my 
face. 

I  withdrew  again  in  a  few  minutes,  and  followed 
the  great  chimney's  course  upward.  Miss  Octa- 

152 


CECILIA'S  SILVER  NOTE-BOOK 


via's  apartments  were  at  the  front  of  the  house, 
her  sitting-room  windows  looking  out  upon  the 
Italian  garden.  Her  doors  were  closed,  but  I  knew 
from  my  examination  in  the  morning  that  the  flue 
of  her  fireplace  tapped  the  chimney  that  rose  from 
the  drawing-room,  and  had  nothing  whatever  to 
do  with  the  library  chimney. 

From  the  fourth  floor  I  gained  the  roof,  by  the 
route  followed  on  my  inspection  of  the  house  in 
the  morning.  The  smoke  from  the  library  chim- 
ney was  rising  in  the  crisp,  still  air  blithely.  I 
leaned  upon  the  crenelations  and  looked  off 
across  the  hills,  enjoying  the  loveliness  of  the 
sky,  in  which  the  planets  throbbed  superbly. 
There  was  nothing  to  be  learned  here,  and  I 
crept  back  to  the  trap-door  through  which  I  had 
come,  made  it  fast,  and  continued  on  down  to 
the  library. 

There,  somewhat  to  my  surprise,  I  found  that 
in  my  absence  all  but  Hume  had  taken  their 
departure.  As  I  paused  unseen  in  the  doorway, 
I  caught  words  that  were  clearly  not  intended 
for  my  ear. 

Cecilia  sat  by  the  long  table  near  the  fireplace; 
Hume  stood  before  her,  his  arms  folded. 

"You  are  kind;  you  do  me  great  honor,  Pro- 
fessor Hume,  but  under  no  circumstances  can 
I  become  your  wife." 

153 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

I  retreated  hastily  to  the  billiard-room,  where 
I  took  a  cue  from  the  rack  and  amused  myself 
for  perhaps  fifteen  minutes,  when,  hearing  the 
outer  door  close  and  knowing  that  Hume  had 
departed  with  his  congee,  I  returned  to  the 
library. 

Cecilia  sat  where  I  had  left  her,  and  at  first 
glance  I  thought  she  was  reading ;  but  she 
turned  quickly  as  I  crossed  the  room.  She  held 
in  her  hand  an  oblong  silver  trinket  not  larger 
than  a  card-case.  A  short  pencil  similar  to  those 
affixed  to  dance-cards  was  attached  to  it  by  a 
slight  cord,  and  she  had,  I  inferred,  been  making 
a  notation  of  some  kind  on  a  leaf  of  the  silver- 
bound  booklet.  Even  after  she  had  looked  up 
and  smiled  at  me,  her  eyes  sought  the  page  be- 
fore her;  then  she  closed  the  covers  and  clasped 
the  pretty  toy  in  her  hand.  As  though  to  divert 
my  attention  she  recurred  at  once  to  the  chim- 
ney, in  a  vein  of  light  irony. 

''You  see,"  she  said,  "there  is  ample  reason 
for  your  remaining  here.  You  would  hardly 
find  anywhere  else  so  interesting  a  test  of  your 
professional  powers  as  Hopefield  Manor  offers. 
The  house  is  haunted  beyond  question,  and  I 
can  see  that  you  are  not  a  man  to  leave  two  de- 
fenseless women  to  the  mercy  of  a  ghost  who 
drops  down  chimneys  at  will." 

154 


CECILIA'S  SILVER  NOTE-BOOK 


I  suffered  her  chaff  for  several  minutes,  then 
I  asked  point-blank:  — 

"Pardon  me,  but  have  you  the  slightest  idea 
that  Miss  Octavia  is  behind  this?  It  is  not  pos- 
sible that  she  was  responsible  last  night;  but 
she  was  not  on  this  floor  a  while  ago  when  the 
smoke  poured  in  here.  I  should  be  glad  to  hear 
your  opinion." 

"I  saw  that  you  suspected  her  before  you  left 
the  room,  Mr.  Ames,  and  I  must  say  that  the 
idea  is  in  no  way  creditable  to  you.  If  you 
entertain  such  a  suspicion  you  must  supply  a 
motive,  and  just  what  motive  would  you  attrib- 
ute to  my  Aunt  Octavia  in  this  instance?" 

Her  tone  and  manner  piqued  me,  or  I  should 
not  have  answered  as  I  did. 

"It  is  possible,"  I  said,  "that  some  of  these 
gentlemen  who  came  here  to-night  were  not  to 
her  liking,  and  it  may  have  occurred  to  her  to 
get  rid  of  them  by  the  obviously  successful 
method  of  smoking  them  out." 

She  rose,  still  clasping  the  little  silver-backed 
note-book,  and  looked  me  over  with  amusement 
in  her  face  and  eyes. 

:'You  are  almost  too  ingenious,  Mr.  Ames.  I 
hope  that  by  breakfast-time  you  will  have  some 
more  plausible  solution  of  the  problem.  Good- 
night." 

155 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

And  so,  tightly  clasping  the  little  book,  she 
left  the  room.  I  followed  her  to  the  door,  and  at 
the  turn  of  the  stair  she  glanced  down  and 
nodded.  Her  face,  as  it  hung  above  me  for  an 
instant,  seemed  transfigured  with  happiness. 

But,  as  will  appear,  my  adventures  for  the 
day  were  not  concluded. 


IX 

I   MEET  A   PLAYFUL   GHOST 

IT  was  not  yet  ten  o'clock,  and  I  was  dismayed 
at  the  thought  of  being  left  to  my  own  devices 
in  this  big  country-house,  at  an  hour  when  the 
talk  at  the  Hare  and  Tortoise  usually  became 
worth  while.  I  sat  down  and  began  to  turn  over 
the  periodicals  on  the  library  table,  but  I  was 
in  no  mood  for  reading. 

The  butler  appeared  and  offered  me  drink, 
but  the  thought  of  drinking  alone  did  not  ap- 
peal to  me.  I  repelled  the  suggestion  coldly; 
but  after  I  had  dropped  my  eyes  to  the  English 
review  I  had  taken  up,  I  was  conscious  that  he 
stood  his  ground. 

"Beg  pardon,  sir." 

"Well?" 

"Hit 's  a  bit  hod  about  the  chimney,  sir." 

The  professional  man  in  me  was  at  once  alert. 
The  chimney's  conduct  was  inexplicable  enough, 
but  I  was  in  no  humor  to  brook  the  theories  of 
a  stupid  servant.  Still,  he  might  know  some- 
thing, so  I  nodded  for  him  to  go  on. 

He  glanced  over  his  shoulder  and  came  a  step 
nearer. 

157 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

"They  say  in  the  village,  sir,  that  the  'ouse 
is  'aim ted." 

"What?" 

"'Aunted,  sir." 

"Who  say  it,  James?" 

"The  liveryman  told  the  coachman,  and  the 
'ousemaid  gotjiit  from  a  seamstress.  Hit 's  werry 
queer,  sir." 

"Rubbish,  James.  I  'm  amazed  that  a  per- 
son of  your  station  should  listen  to  a  liveryman's 
gossip.  There  's  the  chimney,  it 's  working  per- 
fectly. Some  shift  of  air-currents  causes  it  to 
puff  a  little  smoke  into  this  room  occasionally, 
but  those  things  are  not  related  to  the  super- 
natural. We  '11  find  some  way  of  correcting  it 
in  a  day  or  two." 

"Werry  good,  sir.  But  begging  pardon,  the 
chimney  hain't  hall.  Hit  walks,  if  I  may  so  hex- 
press  hit." 

"WTalks?"  I  exclaimed,  sitting  up  and  throw- 
ing down  my  review.  "What  walks?" 

;'  You  'ear  hit,  sir,  hin  the  walls.  Hit  goes  right 
through  the  solid  brick,  most  hunaccountable." 

'You  hear  a  mouse  in  the  walls  and  think  it 's 
a  ghost?  But  you  forget,  James,  that  this  is  a 
new  house,  —  only  a  year  or  so  old,  —  and 
spooks  don't  frequent  such  places.  If  it  were  an 
old  place,  it  might  be  possible  that  the  creak- 

158 


I  MEET  A  PLAYFUL  GHOST 


ing  of  floors  and  the  settling  of  walls  would  cause 
uneasiness  in  nervous  people.  The  ghost  tradi- 
tion usually  rests  on  some  ugly  fact.  But  here 
nothing  of  the  kind  is  present." 


"Hit  was  one  of  'is  majesty's  horfficers,  sir," 
he  answered  hoarsely. 

It  flashed  over  me  that  this  big  stolid  fellow 
was  out  of  his  head;  but  sane  or  mad  he  was 

159 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

clearly  greatly  disturbed.  It  was  best,  I  thought, 
on  either  hypothesis,  to  speak  to  him  peremp- 
torily, and  I  rose,  the  better  to  deal  with  the 
situation. 

"What  nonsense  is  this  you  have  in  your 
head?  You  're  in  the  United  States,  and  there 
are  n't  any  majesty's  soldiers  to  deal  with.  You 
forget  that  you  're  not  in  England  now." 

"But  this  'ere  country  used  to  be  Henglish, 
you  may  recall,  sir.  The  story  the  coachman 
got  hin  the  village  goes  back  to  the  hold  times, 
sir,  when  the  colonies  was  hin  rebellion,  if  I  may 
so  call  hit,  sir,  and  'is  majesty's  troops  was  put- 
tin'  down  the  rebellion  hin  these  parts.  Some 
American  rebels  chased  a  British  soldier  from 
hover  near  White  Plains  to  these  'ere  woods  as 
they  was  then,  and  they  'anged  'im,  sir,  right 
where  this  'ere  'ouse  stands,  if  I  may  make  so 
free." 

"Ah!  This  is  a  revolutionary  relic,  then?" 

"You  'ave  got  hit,  sir,"  he  sputtered  eagerly. 
"They  'anged  the  man  right  'ere  where  the 
'ouse  stands." 

"That 's  not  a  bad  story,  James.  And  what 
does  your  mistress  say  about  it?" 

"Well,  sir;  hit 's  the  talk  hin  the  village  that 
that 's  why  she  bought  the  place,  sir.  She  rather 
fancies  ghosts  and  the  like,  as  you  may  know,  sir." 

160 


I  MEET  A  PLAYFUL  GHOST 


"Be  careful  what  you  say,  James.  Miss  Hoi- 
lister  is  a  noble  and  wise  lady,  and  you  do  well 
to  give  her  your  best  service." 

"We  're  all  fond  of  'er,  sir,  though  she  's  a 
bit  troubled  hin  the  'ead,  if  I  may  make  so  bold. 
She  says  a  good  ghost  is  a  hasset." 

I  did  not  at  once  catch  *  asset '  with  an  aspirate, 
but  when  he  repeated  it,  I  laughed  in  spite  of 
myself. 

"You  'd  better  go  to  bed,  James.  And  don't 
encourage  talk  among  the  other  servants  about 
this  ghost.  I  know  something  about  the  build- 
ing of  houses,  and  I  '11  give  these  walls  a  good 
looking  over.  Good-night." 

It  was  apparent  that  my  interview  had  not 
cheered  him  greatly.  He  turned  at  the  door,  to 
ask  if  I  would  put  out  the  lights,  and  fear  was 
so  clearly  written  upon  his  big  red  face  that  I 
dismissed  him  sharply. 

I  made  myself  comfortable  for  an  hour,  smok- 
ing a  cigar  over  an  article  on  English  politics, 
and  while  I  read,  a  big  log  placidly  burned  itself 
to  ashes.  I  found  the  switch  and  snapped  out 
the  library  lights.  When  I  had  gained  the  sec- 
ond floor  I  turned  off  the  lights  in  the  hall  below, 
and  as  I  looked  down  the  well  to  make  sure  I 
had  turned  the  right  key,  the  third  floor  lights 
suddenly  died  and  I  was  left  in  darkness.  This 

161 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

was  the  least  bit  disconcerting.  I  was  quite 
sure  that  the  upper  lights  had  remained  burn- 
ing brightly  after  the  darkening  of  the  lower 
hall,  so  that  it  was  hardly  possible  that  the  one 
switch  had  cut  off  both  lights. 

Standing  by  the  rail  that  guarded  the  well,  I 
peered  upward,  thinking  that  some  one  above 
me  was  manipulating  another  switch;  but  the 
silence  was  as  complete  as  the  blackness.  I  was 
about  to  turn  from  the  rail  to  the  wall  to  find 
the  switch,  but  at  this  moment,  as  my  face  was 
still  lifted  in  the  intentness  with  which  I  was 
listening,  something  brushed  my  cheek,  —  some- 
thing soft  of  touch  and  swift  of  movement.  As 
I  gripped  the  rail  I  felt  this  touch  once,  twice, 
thrice.  Then  my  hand  sought  the  wall  madly, 
and  with  so  bad  an  aim  that  it  was  quite  a  min- 
ute before  I  found  the  switch-plate  and  snapped 
all  the  keys.  The  stair,  and  the  halls  above 
and  below  me  sprang  into  being  again,  and  I 
stood  blinking  stupidly  upward. 

Though  I  was  in  a  modern  house  thoroughly 
lighted  by  electricity,  I  cannot  deny  that  this 
incident,  following  so  quickly  upon  the  butler's 
story,  occasioned  a  moment's  acute  horripila- 
tion, accompanied  by  an  uncomfortable  tremor 
of  the  legs.  As  already  hinted,  I  lay  no  claim 
to  great  valor.  As  for  ghosts,  I  am  half  per- 

162 


I  MEET  A  PLAYFUL  GHOST 


suaded  of  their  existence,  and  after  witnessing 
a  presentation  of  Hamlet,  always  feel  that 
Shakespeare  is  as  safe  a  guide  in  such  matters 
as  the  destructive  scientific  critics. 

There  were  various  plausible  explanations  of 
the  failure  of  the  lights.  Some  switch  that  I  did 
not  know  of,  perhaps  in  the  third-floor  hall,  might 
have  been  turned;  or  the  power  house  in  the  vil- 
lage might  have  been  shifting  dynamos.  Either 
solution  of  the  riddle  was  credible.  But  the 
ghostly  touch  on  my  face  could  not  be  accounted 
for  so  readily.  Leaving  the  lights  on,  I  contin- 
ued to  the  third  floor,  and  examined  the  switch, 
and  sought  in  other  ways  to  explain  these  phe- 
nomena. My  composure  returned  more  slowly 
than  I  care  to  confess,  and  I  think  it  was  pro- 
bably in  my  mind  that  the  ghost  of  King 
George's  dead  soldier  might  be  lying  in  wait 
for  me;  but  I  saw  and  heard  nothing.  The  doors 
of  the  unused  chambers  on  the  third  floor  were 
closed,  and  I  did  not  feel  justified  in  trying  them. 
The  servants  were  housed  on  this  floor,  at  the 
rear  of  the  house,  and  a  door  that  cut  off  their 
quarters  proved  on  examination  to  be  tightly 
locked. 

The  fourth  floor  was  only  a  half-story,  used 
for  storage  purposes.  The  roof  was  gained,  I 
recalled,  by  an  iron  ladder  and  a  hatchway  in 

163 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

a  trunk-room.  I  ran  down  to  my  room  and 
found  a  candle,  to  be  armed  against  any  further 
fickleness  of  the  lights,  and  set  out  for  the  fourth 
floor.  I  had  changed  my  coat,  and  with  a  couple 
of  candles  and  a  box  of  matches  started  for  the 
roof.  My  courage  had  risen  now,  and  I  was 
ready  for  any  further  adventure  that  the  night 
might  hold  for  me.  Miss  Hollister  and  Cecilia 
were  both  in  their  rooms,  presumably  asleep; 
the  servants  doubtless  had  their  doors  barred 
against  ghostly  visitors,  and  the  house  was  mine 
to  explore  as  I  pleased. 

I  think  I  was  humming  slightly  as  I  mounted 
the  stair,  which,  in  keeping  with  the  general 
luxuriousness  that  characterized  the  furnish- 
ing of  the  house,  was  thickly  carpeted  even  to 
the  fourth  floor.  I  was  slipping  my  hand  along 
the  rail,  and  mounting,  I  dare  say,  a  little  jauntily 
as  I  screwed  my  courage  to  an  unfamiliar  notch, 
when  suddenly,  midway  of  the  first  half,  and 
just  before  I  reached  the  turn  where  the  stair 
broke,  the  lights  failed  again,  with  startling 
abruptness.  This  was  carrying  the  joke  pretty 
far,  and  instantly  I  clapped  my  hand  to  my 
pocket  for  the  box  of  safety-matches,  dug  it  out, 
and  then  in  my  haste  dropped  the  lid  essential 
to  ignition,  and  stooped  to  find  it. 

The  stair  had  narrowed  on  this  flight,  and  as 
164 


I  MEET  A  PLAYFUL  GHOST 


I  sought  with  futile  eagerness  to  regain  the  box- 
lid,  I  could  have  sworn  that  some  one  passed 
me.  Still  half-stooping,  I  stretched  out  my 
arms  and  clasped  empty  air,  and  so  suddenly 
had  I  thrown  myself  forward,  that  I  lost  my 
balance  and  rolled  downward  the  space  of  half 
a  dozen  treads  before  I  recovered  myself.  I  was 
badly  scared  and  hardly  less  angry  at  having 
missed  through  my  own  clumsiness  the  joy  of 
grappling  with  the  ghost  of  one  of  King  George's 
soldiers ;  but  the  matches  having  been  lost  in  the 
pitch-darkness  of  the  stair,  I  could  get  my  bear- 
ings again  only  by  clinging  to  the  stair-rail  until 
I  found  the  second-floor  switch.  I  should  say 
that  two  full  minutes  had  passed  between  the 
loss  of  the  matches  and  my  flashing  on  of  the 
lamps.  From  top  to  bottom  the  lights  shone 
brightly;  but  no  one  was  visible  and  I  heard  no 
sound  in  any  part  of  the  house. 

As  I  began  to  analyze  my  sensations  during 
the  temporary  eclipse  of  the  lights,  I  was  con- 
scious of  two  things.  The  being,  human  or 
other,  that  had  passed  me  had  been  light  of 
step  and  fleet  of  motion.  There  had  been  some- 
thing uncanny  in  the  ease  and  speed  of  that 
passing.  I  was  without  conviction  as  to  its  di- 
rection, whether  up  or  down,  though  I  inclined 
to  the  former  notion  for  the  reason  that  the  em- 

165 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

ployment  of  a  concealed  switch  above  seemed 
the  more  reasonable  argument.  And  a  faint, 
an  almost  imperceptible  scent,  as  of  a  flower, 
had  seemed  to  be  a  part  of  the  passing.  Mine 
is  a  sensitive  nostril,  and  I  was  confident  that 
it  did  not  betray  me  in  this.  The  sensation 
stirred  by  that  faintest  of  odors  had  been  agree- 
able; there  was  nothing  suggestive  of  grave- 
mold  or  cerecloth  about  it.  There  was  in  fact 
something  rather  delightfully  human  and  con- 
temporaneous in  this  fellow  that  pleased  and 
reassured  me.  That  scamp  of  a  revolutionary 
British  soldier,  resenting  as  was  his  right  the 
application  of  hemp  to  his  precious  neck,  had 
still  a  grace  in  him,  and  a  ghost  who  prowls 
undaunted  about  an  electric-lighted  house  in  this 
twentieth  century,  having  his  whim  with  the 
switches,  cannot  be  an  utterly  bad  fellow.  My 
respect  for  all  who  are  doomed  to  walk  the  night 
rose  as,  leaving  the  lights  on  clear  to  the  lower 
hall,  I  gathered  up  my  matches  and  started 
again  for  the  roof.  The  trunk-room  door  opened 
readily,  as  on  my  morning  inspection  of  the 
chimney-pots,  but  as  I  glanced  up,  I  saw  that 
the  hatch  was  open.  Through  the  aperture  shone 
the  heavens,  a  square  of  stars,  and  bright  with 
the  moon's  radiance.  Pocketing  my  matches,  I 
ran  nimbly  up  the  ladder. 


X 

MY   BEFUDDLEMENT   INCREASES 

I  HAD  been  surprised  to  find  the  hatch  open, 
but  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  I  was  greatly 
astonished  by  what  I  saw  on  the  moon-flooded 
roof.  There,  midway  of  a  flat  area  that  lay  be- 
tween the  two  larger  chimney-pots,  two  persons 
were  intently  engaged,  not  in  ghostly  prome- 
nading or  posturing,  or  even  in  audible  conver- 
sation, but  in  a  spirited  bout  with  foils!  The 
clicking  and  scraping  of  the  steel  testified  un- 
mistakably to  the  reality  of  their  presence.  And 
I  was  grateful  for  those  sounds!  It  needed  only 
silence  to  tumble  me  back  down  the  trap  with 
chattering  teeth,  but  these  were  beyond  ques- 
tion corporeal  beings,  albeit  rendered  weird  and 
fantastical  by  the  oddity  of  their  playground 
and  the  soft  effulgence  of  the  moon.  The  vigor 
of  the  onset  and  the  skill  of  the  antagonists 
held  me  spellbound.  I  stood  with  head  and 
shoulders  thrust  through  the  opening,  staring 
at  this  unusual  spectacle,  and  not  sure  but  that 
after  all  my  eyes  were  tricking  me. 
"Toucher 

167 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

It  was  a  woman's  voice,  faint  from  breath- 
lessness.  She  threw  off  her  mask  and  dropped 
her  foil,  and  with  a  most  human  and  feminine 
gesture  put  up  her  hands  to  adjust  her  hair.  It 
was  Cecilia  Hollister,  in  a  short  skirt  and  fenc- 
ing coat! 

Her  opponent  was  a  man,  and  as  he  too  flung 
off  his  mask  I  saw  that  he  was  a  gentleman  of 
years.  If  Miss  Cecilia  Hollister  chose  to  meet 
strange  men  on  the  roof  of  her  aunt's  house  and 
practice  the  fencer's  art  with  them,  it  was  no 
affair  of  mine,  and  I  was  about  to  withdraw  when 
the  stranger  swung  round  and  saw  me.  His 
sudden  exclamation  caused  the  girl  to  turn,  and 
as  a  reasonable  frankness  has  always  seemed  to 
me  essential  to  a  nice  discretion,  I  crawled  out 
on  the  roof. 

"I  beg  your  pardon,  Miss  Hollister,  but  if  I 
had  known  you  were  here  I  should  not  have  in- 
truded. The  vagaries  of  the  library  chimney 
have  been  on  my  mind,  and  I  was  about  to  have 
another  peep  into  yonder  pot." 

She  stood  at  her  ease,  with  one  hand  resting 
lightly  against  the  inexplicable  chimney  in  ques- 
tion, and  still  somewhat  spent  from  her  exercise. 

"Father,"  she  said,  turning  to  the  stranger 
who  stood  near,  "this  is  Mr.  Ames,  who  is  Aunt 
Octavia's  guest." 

168 


MY  BEFUDDLEMENT  INCREASES 

The  light  of  the  gibbous  moon  enabled  me  to 
discern  pretty  clearly  the  form  and  features  of 


Mr.  Bassford  Hollister.  And  I  find,  in  looking 
over  my  notes,  that  I  accepted  as  a  matter  of 
course  the  singular  meeting  with  my  hostess's 
brother.  I  had  grown  so  used  to  the  ways  of  the 
Hollisters  I  already  knew,  that  the  meeting  with 

169 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

another  member  of  the  family  at  eleven  o'clock 
at  night  on  the  roof  of  this  remarkable  house 
gave  me  no  great  shock  of  surprise.  He  was  tall, 
slender  and  dark,  with  fine  eyes  that  suggested 
Cecilia's.  His  close-trimmed  beard  was  slightly 
gray:  but  he  bore  himself  erect,  and  I  had  al- 
ready seen  that  he  was  alert  of  arm  and  eye  and 
nimble  of  foot. 

He  put  on  his  coat,  which  had  been  lying  across 
one  of  the  crenelations,  and  covered  his  head 
with  a  small  soft  hat. 

"This  will  do  for  to-night,  Cecilia.  You  had 
the  best  of  me.  We  '11  try  again  another  time. 
I  'm  glad  you  stopped  us,  Mr.  Ames.  We  'd 
had  enough." 

He  seemed  in  no  wise  disturbed  by  my  ap- 
pearance, nor  in  any  haste  to  leave.  This  meet- 
ing between  the  father  and  daughter,  I  reasoned, 
could  hardly  have  been  a  matter  of  chance,  and 
it  must  have  been  in  Cecilia's  mind  that  some 
sort  of  explanation  would  not  be  amiss. 

"Father  and  I  have  fenced  together  for  years," 
she  said.  "My  sister  Hezekiah  does  not  care 
for  the  sport.  As  you  have  already  seen  that 
my  aunt  Octavia  is  an  unusual  woman,  given 
to  many  whims,  I  will  not  deny  to  you  that  at 
present  my  father  is  persona  non  grata  in  this 
house.  I  beg  to  assure  you  that  nothing  to  his 

170 


MY  BEFUDDLEMENT  INCREASES 

discredit  or  mine  has  contributed  to  that  situa- 
tion, nor  can  our  meeting  here  to-night  be  con- 
strued as  detrimental  to  him  or  to  me.  In  meet- 
ing my  father  in  thi$  way  I  have  in  a  sense 
broken  faith  with  my  aunt  Octavia,  but  I  assure 
you,  Mr.  Ames,  that  it  is  only  the  natural  affec- 
tion for  a  daughter  that  led  my  father  to  seek 
me  here  in  this  clandestine  fashion." 

Cecilia  had  spoken  steadily,  but  her  voice 
broke  as  she  concluded,  and  she  walked  quickly 
toward  the  hatchway.  Her  father  stepped 
before  me  to  give  her  his  hand  through  the 
opening. 

I  withdrew  to  the  edge  of  the  roof  while  a  few 
words  passed  between  them  that  seemed  to  be 
on  his  part  an  expostulation  and  on  hers  an 
earnest  denial  and  plea.  He  passed  her  the  foils 
and  masks  and  she  vanished;  whereupon  he 
addressed  himself  to  me. 

"I  had  learned  from  both  my  daughters  of 
your  presence  in  my  sister's  house,  and  I  had 
expected  to  meet  you,  sooner  or  later.  This  is  a 
strange  business,  a  strange  business." 

He  had  drawn  out  a  pipe,  which  he  filled  and 
lighted  dexterously.  The  flame  of  his  match 
gave  me  better  acquaintance  with  his  face.  He 
leaned  against  the  serrated  roof-guard  with 
the  greatest  composure,  his  hat  tilted  to  one 

171 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

side,  and  drew  his  pipe  to  a  glow.  I  had  not 
forgotten  my  encounter  with  the  ghost  on  the 
stair,  and  as  I  waited  for  him  to  speak,  I  was 
trying  to  identify  him  with  the  mysterious 
agency  that  had  tampered  with  the  lights,  and 
passed  so  ghostly  a  hand  across  my  face  in  the 
stair-well.  I  could  hardly  say  that  there  had 
not  been  time  for  either  Bassford  Hollister  or 
his  daughter  to  have  reached  the  roof  after  my 
experiences  on  the  stair;  and  yet  they  had  been 
engaged  so  earnestly  at  the  moment  of  my  ap- 
pearance at  the  hatchway  that  it  was  improb- 
able that  either  could  have  played  ghost  and 
flown  to  the  roof  before  I  reached  it.  And  elim- 
inating the  ghost  altogether,  I  had  yet  to  learn 
how  Bassford  Hollister  had  gained  entrance 
to  the  house.  It  seemed  best  to  drop  specu- 
lations and  wait  for  him  to  declare  himself. 

:'You  must  understand,  Mr.  Ames,  that  my 
daughters,  both  of  them,  are  very  dear  to  me. 
It  is  the  great  grief  of  my  life  that  owing  to  mat- 
ters beyond  my  control  I  have  been  unable  to 
care  for  them  as  I  should  like  to  do.  This  being  the 
case,  I  have  been  obliged  to  allow  them  to  accept 
many  favors  from  my  only  sister  Octavia.  This 
in  ordinary  circumstances  would  not  be  repug- 
nant to  my  pride;  but  my  sister  is  a  very  unusual 
person.  She  must  do  for  my  children  in  her  own 

172  * 


MY  BEFUDDLEMENT  INCREASES 

way,  and  while  I  was  prepared,  in  agreeing  that 
they  should  accept  her  bounty,  for  some  whim- 
sical manifestation  of  her  eccentric  character, 
I  did  not  imagine  that  she  would  go  so  far  as 
to  shut  me  out  from  all  knowledge  of  her  plans 
for  them.  That,  Mr.  Ames,  is  what  has  hap- 
pened." 

His  voice  rose  and  fell  mournfully.  He  puffed 
his  pipe  for  a  moment  and  continued :  — 

"Cecilia,  being  the  older,  was  to  be  launched 
first.  Hezekiah  was  to  be  cared  for  in  due  sea- 
son. Last  summer  Octavia  took  them  both 
abroad.  As  you  are  aware,  they  are  young 
women  of  unusual  distinction  of  appearance  and 
manner,  and  they  attracted  a  great  deal  of  at- 
tention. From  what  I  hear,  a  troop  of  suitors 
followed  them  about.  That  sort  of  thing  would 
appeal  to  Octavia;  to  me  it  is  most  repellent,  but 
I  had  already  committed  myself,  agreeing  that 
Octavia  should  manage  in  her  own  fashion.  There 
is  now  something  forward  here  which  I  do  not 
understand.  I  have  an  idea  that  Octavia  has  con- 
trived some  preposterous  scheme  for  choosing  a 
husband  for  Cecilia  that  is  in  keeping  with  her 
odd  fashion  of  transacting  all  her  business.  I  do 
not  know  its  nature,  and  by  the  terms  of  her 
agreement  Cecilia  is  not  to  disclose  the  method 
to  be  employed  to  me,  —  not  even  to  me,  her 

173 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

own  father.  You  must  agree,  Ames,  that  that  is 
rather  rubbing  it  in." 

"But  you  don't  assume  that  your  daughter 
is  not  to  be  a  free  agent  in  the  matter?  You 
don't  believe  that  some  unworthy  and  improper 
man  is  to  be  forced  upon  her?" 

"That,  sir,  is  exactly  what  I  fear!" 

"You  w7ill  pardon  me,  but  I  cannot  for  a  mo- 
ment believe  that  Miss  Hollister  would  risk  her 
niece's  happiness  even  to  satisfy  her  own  peculiar 
humor.  Your  sister  is  a  shrewd  woman,  and  her 
heart,  I  am  convinced,  is  the  kindest.  Among 
the  suitors  now  camped  at  the  Prescott  Arms 
there  must  be  some  one  whom  your  daughter 
approves,  and  I  see  no  reason  why  he  should 
not  ultimately  be  her  choice.  Now  that  you 
have  broached  the  matter,  I  make  free  to  say 
that  one  of  these  suitors  is  an  old  friend  of  mine. 
Hartley  Wiggins  by  name,  and  that  he  is  a  man 
of  the  highest  character  and  a  gentleman  in  the 
strictest  sense." 

He  had  been  listening  to  me  with  the  greatest 
composure,  but  at  the  mention  of  Wiggins's 
name  he  started  and  nervously  clutched  my 
arm. 

'That  man  may  be  all  that  you  say,"  he  cried 
chokingly,  "but  he  has  acted  infamously  to- 
ward both  my  daughters.  He  is  a  rogue,  and 

174 


MY  BEFUDDLEMENT  INCREASES 

a  most  despicable  fellow.  He  has  flirted  out- 
rageously with  Hezekiah  while  at  the  same  time 
pretending  to  be  deeply  interested  in  Cecilia. 
I  say  to  you  in  all  candor  that  a  man  who  will 
trifle  with  the  affections  of  a  child  like  Heze- 
kiah is  a  villain,  nothing  less." 

"But,  my  dear  sir,  is  it  not  possible  that  you 
do  him  a  great  wrong?  May  it  not  be  the  other 
way  round,  that  Hezekiah  is  trifling  with  Wig- 
gins's  affections?  He  's  a  splendid  fellow,  Hart- 
ley Wiggins,  but  he  's  a  little  slow,  that 's  all. 
And  between  two  superb  young  women  like 
your  daughters  a  man  may  be  pardoned  for 
doubts  and  hesitations;  a  case  of  being  happy 
with  either  if  t'other  dear  charmer  were  only 
away.  To  put  it  quite  concretely,  I  will  say 
that  in  my  own  very  slight  acquaintance  with 
these  young  women  I  feel  the  spell  of  both.  Your 
sister,  I  take  it,  is  anxious  not  to  show  partial- 
ity for  any  of  these  men,  and  yet  I  dare  say 
she  probably  feels  kindly  disposed  toward  Wig- 
gins. His  worst  crime  seems  to  be  that  he  chose 
Tory  ancestors !  The  thing  is  bound  to  straighten 
itself  out." 

He  tossed  his  head  impatiently. 

"Has  it  occurred  to  you  that  Octavia's  in- 
terest in  this  Hartley  Wiggins  may  be  due  to  a 
trifling  and  immaterial  fact?" 

175 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

"Nothing  beyond  his  indubitable  eligibility." 

"Then  let  me  tell  you  what  I  suspect.  Both  his 
names  contain  seven  letters.  My  sister  is  slightly 
cracked  as  to  the  number  seven.  I  swear  to  you 
my  belief  that  the  fact  that  his  names  contain 
seven  letters  each  is  at  the  bottom  of  all  this. 
Incredible,  my  dear  sir,  but  wholly  possible!" 

"Then,  such  being  the  case,  why  does  n't  she 
show  her  hand  openly?  If  she  believes  that 
Wiggins  with  his  septenary  names  is  ordained 
by  the  seven  original  pleiades  to  marry  your 
daughter  Cecilia,  I  should  think  that  by  the 
same  token  she  would  have  sought  a  man  re- 
joicing in  the  noble  name  of  Septimus.  You 
send  conjecture  far  when  once  you  entertain 
so  absurd  an  idea." 

;<You  think  my  assumption  unlikely?"  he 
asked  eagerly. 

"I  certainly  do,  Mr.  Hollister.  But  I  confess 
that  I  had  never  counted  the  letters  in  Wiggins's 
name  before,  and  your  suggestion  is  interesting. 
And  this  whole  idea  of  the  potential  seven  in 
our  affairs  has  possibilities.  If  seven  at  all, 
why  is  n't  it  possible  that  your  sister  has  Jacob 
in  mind  and  the  seven  years  he  served  for  Rachel? 
You  may  as  well  assume  that,  as  Wiggins  is 
specially  favored  in  the  number  of  letters  in  his 
singularly  prosaic  and  unromantic  name,  it  is 

176 


MY  BEFUDDLEMENT  INCREASES 

Miss  Hollister's  plan  to  keep  him  dallying  seven 
years." 

He  seized  me  by  the  arm  and  forced  me  back 
against  the  battlements,  then  stood  off  and  eyed 
me  fiercely. 

"You  speak  of  serving  and  of  service!  Will 
you  tell  me  just  why  you  are  here  and  what 
brings  you  into  this  affair!  My  daughter  Heze- 
kiah  is  the  frankest  person  alive,  and  she  told 
me  of  her  meetings  with  you  and  that  you  had 
been  to  the  Asolando,  —  where  she  spent  a  day 
in  the  sheerest  spirit  of  mischief.  That  was  the 
beginning  of  all  our  troubles,  that  damned  hole 
with  its  insane  confectionery  and  poetry.  If 
Cecilia,  in  a  misguided  notion  of  earning  her 
own  living,  had  not  gone  there  and  worn  an 
apron  for  a  week  before  I  dragged  her  out,  she 
would  never  have  met  Wiggins.  And  now  will 
you  kindly  tell  me  just  what  you  are  doing  in 
my  sister's  house,  where  I  have  to  come  like  a 
thief  in  the  night  to  see  one  of  my  own  chil- 
dren?" 

This  fierce  deliverance  touched  me  nearly: 
I  doubted  my  ability  to  explain  to  one  of  these 
amazing  Hollisters  just  how  I  came  to  be  so- 
journing in  the  house  of  another  of  the  family 
without  any  business  that  would  bear  scrutiny. 
I  hastened  to  declare  my  profession,  and  that 

177 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

I  had  been  summoned  by  Miss  Hollister  to  ex- 
amine her  chimneys.  I  could  not,  however, 
tell  him  that  until  my  arrival  the  chimneys  had 
behaved  themselves  admirably! 

:' You've  admitted  your  friendship  for  this 
Wiggins  person;  that 's  enough,"  he  said  when  I 
had  concluded.  "  I  advise  you  to  leave  the  house 
at  once.  I  tell  you  he  's  got  to  be  eliminated 
from  the  situation.  Understand,  that  I  do  not 
threaten  you  with  violence,  but  I  will  not  pro- 
mise to  abstain  from  visiting  heavy  punishment 
upon  that  fellow.  And  you?  A  chimney-doctor? 
I  am  a  man  of  considerable  knowledge  of  the 
world,  and  I  say  to  you  very  candidly  that  I 
don't  believe  there  is  any  such  profession." 

"Then  let  me  tell  you,"  I  replied,  not  without 
heat,  "that  I  am  a  graduate  in  architecture, 
and  that  if  you  will  do  me  the  honor  to  consult 
a  list  of  the  alumni  of  the  Institute  of  Techno- 
logy, you  will  find  that  I  was  graduated  there 
not  without  credit.  And  as  for  remaining  in  this 
house,  I  beg  to  inform  you,  Mr.  Hollister,  that 
as  I  am  your  sister's  guest  and  as  she  is  per- 
fectly competent  to  manage  her  own  affairs, 
I  shall  stay  here  as  long  as  it  pleases  her  to  ask 
me  to  remain.  And  now,  one  other  matter. 
How  did  you  gain  this  roof  to-night,  when  by 
your  own  admission  you  are  not  on  such  terms 

178 


MY  BEFUDDLEMENT  INCREASES 

with  your  sister  as  would  justify  you  in  entering 
it  openly?" 

The  moonlight  did  not  fail  to  convey  the  con- 
tempt in  his  face,  but  I  thought  he  grinned  as 
he  answered  quietly :  — 

"You  don't  seem  to  understand,  young  man, 
that  you  are  entitled  to  no  explanations  from 
me.  If  my  sister  has  her  sense  of  a  joke,  I  as- 
sure you  that  I  have  mine.  I  came  here  to  see 
my  daughter.  As  I  taught  her  to  fence  when 
she  was  ten  years  old  and  as  she  is  particularly 
expert,  and  moreover,  as  in  my  present  condi- 
tion of  poverty  I  have  been  obliged  to  forego 
the  pleasure  of  metropolitan  life  and  to  give  up 
my  membership  in  the  Fencers'  Club,  you  can 
hardly  deny  my  right  to  meet  my  own  daughter 
for  a  brief  bout  anywhere  I  please.  You  strike 
me  as  a  singularly  fresh  young  person.  It  would 
be  a  positive  grief  to  me  to  feel  that  my  conduct 
had  displeased  you.  And  now,  as  the  night 
grows  chill,  I  shall  beg  you  to  precede  me  into 
the  house  by  the  way  you  came." 

"But  first,"  I  persisted,  "let  me  ask  a  ques- 
tion. It  is  possible  that  you  yourself  have  some 
preference  among  your  daughter's  several  suit- 
ors, Mr.  Hollister.  Would  you  object  to  telling 
me  which  one  you  would  choose  for  Miss  Ce- 
cilia?" 

179 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

"Beyond  question,  the  man  for  Cecilia,  if  I 
have  any  voice  in  the  matter,  is  Lord  Arro- 
wood." 

"Arrowood!"  I  exclaimed.  "You  surprise  me 
greatly.  I  saw  him  at  the  inn,  and  he  seemed  to 
me  the  most  insignificant  and  uninteresting  one 
of  the  lot." 

"That  proves  you  a  person  of  poor  gifts  of 
discernment,  Mr.  Ames;"  and  his  tone  and  man- 
ner were  quite  reminiscent  of  his  sister's  ways; 
and  his  further  explanation  proved  him  even  more 
worthily  the  brother  of  his  sister. 

"As  I  was  obliged,"  he  began,  "owing  to  an 
unfortunate  physical  handicap,  to  abandon  my 
art,  that  of  a  marine  painter,  I  have  given  my 
attention  for  a  number  of  years  to  the  study  of 
the  Irish  situation.  Between  the  various  po- 
litical parties  of  Great  Britain,  poor  Ireland  can 
never  regain  her  ancient  power.  But  I  see  no 
reason  why  she  should  not  become  once  more 
a  free  and  independent  nation.  I  have  gone 
deeply  into  Irish  history,  and  I  may  modestly 
say  that  I  probably  know  that  history  from 
the  time  of  the  Anglo-Norman  invasion  to  the 
death  of  Gladstone  better  than  any  other  liv- 
ing man.  I  met  Arrowood  by  chance  in  the 
highway  yesterday,  and  I  found  that  he  holds 
exactly  my  ideas." 

180 


MY  BEFUDDLEMENT  INCREASES 

"But  Arrowood  isn't  an  Irishman,"  I  inter- 
jected; "neither,  I  should  say,  are  you!" 

"That 's  not  to  the  point.  Neither  was  Na- 
poleon a  Frenchman  strictly  speaking;  nor  was 
Lafayette  an  American.  A  friend  of  mine  in 
Wall  Street  is  ready,  when  the  time  is  ripe,  to 
finance  the  scheme  by  selling  bonds  to  the  mul- 
titudes- of  Irish  office-holders  throughout  the 
United  States,  —  most  of  whom  are  not  unknown 
to  the  banks." 

"And  I  suppose  you  and  Arrowood  would  sit 
jointly  in  the  seat  of  the  ancient  kings  in  Dublin 
after  you  had  effected  your  coup." 

"You  lose  your  bet,  Mr.  Ames.  We  have 
agreed  that,  as  the  mayors  of  Boston  for  many 
years  have  been  Irishmen,  and  as  they  have, 
by  their  prowess  in  holding  the  natives  in  sub- 
ordination, demonstrated  the  highest  political 
sagacity,  we  could  not  do  better  than  take  one 
of  these  rulers  of  the  old  Puritan  capital  and 
place  him  on  the  Irish  throne.  The  keen  humor 
of  that  move  would  so  tickle  all  interested 
powers,  that  the  investiture  and  coronation  of 
the  new  ruler  would  be  accomplished  without 
firing  a  shot." 

This  certainly  had  the  true  Hollister  touch! 
Miss  Octavia  herself  could  not  have  devised  a 
more  delightful  scheme. 

181 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

"And  so,"  Mr.  Bassford  Hollister  concluded, 
"I  naturally  incline  toward  Arrowood,  though 
he  is  so  poor  that  he  was  obliged  to  come  over 
in  the  steerage  to  continue  his  wooing  of  my 
daughter." 

He  let  himself  down  into  the  dark  trunk-room, 
waited  for  me  courteously,  and  walked  by  my 
side  to  the  stairway,  both  of  us  maintaining 
silence.  I  was  deeply  curious  to  know  how  he 
had  entered  and  whether  he  expected  to  go  down 
the  front  way  and  out  the  main  door.  We  kept 
together  to  the  third-floor  hall,  —  I  could  have 
swTorn  to  that;  then  suddenly,  just  as  we  reached 
the  stairway,  out  went  the  lights,  and  we  were 
in  utter  darkness.  I  smothered  an  exclamation, 
clutched  my  matches  and  struck  a  light,  and 
as  the  stick  flamed  slowly,  I  looked  about  for 
Bassford  Hollister;  but  he  had  vanished  as  sud- 
denly and  completely  as  though  a  trap  had 
yawned  beneath  us  and  swallowed  him.  I  found 
the  third-floor  switch  and  it  responded  imme- 
diately, flooding  the  stair-well  to  the  lower  hall, 
but  I  neither  saw  nor  heard  anything  more  of 
Hollister. 

Astounded  by  this  performance,  I  continued 
on  to  the  lower  floor  to  have  a  look  around,  and 
there,  calmly  reading  by  the  library  table,  sat 
Miss  Octavia! 

182 


MY  BEFUDDLEMENT  INCREASES 

"Late  hours,  Mr.  Ames!"  she  cried.  "I  sup- 
posed you  had  retired  long  ago." 

I  was  still  the  least  bit  ruffled  by  that  last 
transaction  on  the  stair,  and  I  demanded  a  little 
curtly:  — 

"Pardon  my  troubling  you;  but  may  I  inquire, 
Miss  Hollister,  how  long  you  have  been  sitting 
here?" 

The  clock  on  the  stair  began  to  strike  twelve, 
and  she  listened  composedly  to  a  few  of  the 
deep-toned  strokes  before  replying. 

"Just  half  an  hour.  I  thought  some  one 
knocked  at  my  door  about  an  hour  ago.  The 
lights  were  on  and  I  came  down,  saw  a  maga- 
zine that  had  escaped  my  eye  before,  and  here 
you  find  me." 

"Some  one  knocked  at  your  door?" 

"I  thought  so.  You  know,  the  servants  have 
an  idea  that  the  place  is  haunted,  and  I  thought 
that  if  I  sat  here  the  ghost  might  take  it  upon 
himself  to  walk.  I  confess  to  a  slight  disappoint- 
ment that  it  is  only  you  who  have  appeared.  I 
suppose  it  was  n't  you  who  knocked  at  my 
door?" 

"No,"  I  replied,  laughing  a  little  at  her  man- 
ner, "not  unless  it  was  you  who  switched  off 
the  lights  as  I  was  coming  down  from  the  fourth 
floor.  I  have  been  studying  this  chimney  from 

183 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

the  roof.  I  know  something  of  the  ways  of  elec- 
tric switches,  and  they  don't  usually  move  of 
their  own  accord." 

"Your  coming  to  this  house  has  been  the 
greatest  joy  to  me,  Mr.  Ames.  I  should  not 
have  imagined,  in  a  chance  look  at  you,  that 
you  were  psychical,  and  yet  such  is  clearly  the 
fact.  I  assure  you  that  I  have  not  touched  any 
switch  since  I  left  my  room.  It  was  unneces- 
sary, as  I  found  the  lights  on.  And  I  acquit 
you  of  rapping,  rapping  at  my  chamber-door. 
It  gives  me  the  greatest  satisfaction  to  assume 
that  the  house  is  haunted,  and  at  any  time  you 
find  the  ghost,  I  beg  that  you  will  lose  no  time 
in  presenting  me.  If  the  prowler  is  indeed  one 
of  King  George's  soldiers,  hanged  during  the 
Revolution  on  the  site  of  this  house,  I  should 
like  to  have  words  with  him.  I  have  just  been 
reading  an  article  on  the  political  corruption 
in  Philadelphia  in  this  magazine.  It  bears  every 
evidence  of  truth,  but  if  half  of  it  is  fiction  I 
still  feel  that,  as  an  American  citizen,  though 
denied  the  inalienable  right  of  representation 
assured  me  in  the  Constitution,  we  owe  that 
ghost  an  apology;  for  certainly  nothing  wras 
gained  by  throwing  off  the  British  yoke,  and  that 
poor  soldier  died  in  a  worthy  cause." 

She  wore  a  remarkable  lavender  dressing- 
184 


MY  BEFUDDLEMENT  INCREASES 

gown,  and  a  night-cap  such  as  I  had  never  seen 
outside  a  museum.  As  she  concluded  her  speech, 
spoken  in  that  curious  lilting  tone  which,  from 
the  beginning,  had  left  me  in  doubt  as  to  the 
seriousness  of  all  her  statements,  she  rose  and, 
still  clasping  her  magazine,  made  me  a  courtesy 
and  was  soon  mounting  the  stair. 

I  heard  her  door  close  a  minute  later,  and 
then,  feeling  that  I  had  earned  the  right  to  re- 
pose, I  went  to  my  room  and  to  bed. 


XI 

I    PLAY    TRUANT 

I  SLEPT  late,  and  on  going  down  found  the  table 
set  in  the  breakfast-room.  A  pleasant  inad- 
vertence marked  the  choice  of  eating-places  at 
Hopefield  Manor;  I  was  never  quite  sure  where 
I  should  find  a  table  spread.  No  one  was  about, 
and  I  was  seized  with  that  mild  form  of  panic 
familiar  to  the  guest  who  finds  himself  late  to  a 
meal.  As  I  paused  uncertainly  in  the  door,  view- 
ing the  table,  set,  I  noticed,  for  only  one  person, 
Miss  Octavia  entered  briskly,  her  slight  figure 
concealed  by  a  prodigious  gingham  apron. 

"Good-morrow,  merry  gentleman,"  she  be- 
gan blithely.  "The  most  delightful  thing  has 
happened.  Without  the  slightest  warning,  with- 
out the  faintest  intimation  of  their  dissatisfac- 
tion, the  house-servants  have  departed,  with 
the  single  exception  of  my  personal  maid,  who, 
being  a  Swede  and  therefore  singularly  devoid 
of  emotion,  was  unshaken  by  the  ghost-rumors 
that  have  sent  the  rest  of  my  staff  scampering 
over  the  hills." 

She  lighted  the  coffee-machine  lamp  in  her  most 
tranquil  fashion,  and  begged  rne  to  be  seated. 

186 


I  PLAY  TRUANT 


"I  have  already  breakfasted,"  she  continued, 
"  and  Cecilia  is  even  now  preparing  you  an  ome- 
let with  her  own  hand.  I  beg  to  reassure  you, 
as  my  guest,  that  the  emeute  of  the  servants 
causes  me  not  the  slightest  annoyance.  From 
reading  the  comic  papers  you  may  have  gained 
an  impression  that  the  loss  of  servants  is  a  tragic 
business  in  any  household,  but  nothing  so  petty 
can  disturb  me.  Cecilia  is  an  excellent  cook; 
and  I  myself  shall  not  starve  so  long  as  I  have 
strength  to  crack  an  egg  or  lift  a  stove-lid.  And 
besides,  I  still  retain  my  early  trust  in  Provi- 
dence. I  do  not  doubt  that  before  nightfall  a 
corps  of  excellent  servants  will  again  be  on  duty 
here.  Very  likely  they  are  even  now  bound  for 
this  place,  coming  from  the  wet  coasts  of  Ire- 
land, from  Liverpool,  from  lonely  villages  in 
Scandinavia.  The  average  woman  would  merely 
fret  herself  into  a  sanatorium  if  confronted  with 
the  problem  I  face  this  morning,  but  I  hope  you 
will  testify  in  future  to  the  fact  that  I  faced  this 
day  in  the  cheeriest  and  most  hopeful  spirit." 

"Not  only  shall  I  do  so,  Miss  Hollister,"  I 
replied,  trying  to  catch  her  own  note,  "but  it 
will,  throughout  my  life,  give  me  the  greatest 
satisfaction  to  set  your  cause  aright.  To  that 
extent  let  me  be  Horatio  to  your  Hamlet." 

"Thank  you,  milord,"  she  returned,  with  the 
187 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

utmost  gravity.  "And  may  I  say  further  that 
the  incident  gives  the  stamp  of  authenticity  to 
my  ghost?  I  was  obliged  to  pay  those  people 
double  wages  to  lure  them  from  the  felicities  of 
the  cit}7-,  and  they  must  have  been  a  good  deal 
alarmed  to  have  left  ?o  precipitately.  You  must 
excuse  me  now,  as  it  is  necessary  for  me  to  do 
the  pastry-cook's  work  this  morning,  that  in- 
dividual having  fled  with  the  rest,  and  it  being 
incumbent  on  me,  to  maintain  my  fee-simple 
in  this  property,  to  make  a  dozen  pies  before 
high  noon.  But  first  I  must  visit  the  stables, 
where  I  believe  the  coachman  still  lingers,  hav- 
ing been  prevented  from  joining  the  stampede 
of  the  house-servants  by  the  painful  twinges  of 
gout." 

With  this  she  left  me,  and  I  began  pecking  at 
a  grape-fruit.  It  had  been  in  my  mind  as  I 
dressed  that  morning  to  play  truant  and  visit 
the  city.  It  was  almost  imperative  that  I  take 
a  look  at  my  office,  and  I  had  resolved  upon  a 
plan  which  would,  I  believed,  give  me  the  key 
to  the  ghost  mystery.  If  Pepperton  had  built 
that  house  he  must  know  whether  he  had  con- 
trived any  secret  passages  that  would  afford  exits 
and  entrances  not  apparent  to  the  eye.  It  would 
be  an  easy  matter  to  run  into  the  city,  explain 
myself  to  my  assistant,  and  get  hold  of  Pep- 

188 


I  PLAY  TRUANT 


perton.  My  mind  was  made  up,  and  I  had  even 
consulted  a  time-table  and  chosen  one  of  the  ex- 
press trains.  As  I  sat  at  the  table  absorbed  in 
my  plans  for  the  day,  my  nerves  received  a  sud- 
den shock.  I  had  heard  no  one  enter,  yet  a  voice 
at  my  shoulder  murmured  casually: 

"  Hast  them  seen  ghosts  ?  Hast  thou  at  midnight  heard" — 

It  was  the  voice  of  Hezekiah,  I  knew,  before 
I  faced  her.  She  wore  a  blue  sailor-waist  with 
a  broad  red  ribbon  tied  under  the  collar,  and  a 
blue  tarn  o'shanter  capped  her  head.  She  bore 
a  tray  that  contained  my  omelet,  a  plate  of 
toast,  and  other  sundries  incidental  to  a  sub- 
stantial breakfast,  which  she  distributed  deftly 
upon  the  table. 

"How  did  you  get  here?"  I  blurted,  my 
nerves  still  out  of  control. 

"The  kitchen  door,  sir.  I  had  ridden  into  the 
garden,  and  seeing  Aunt  Octavia  heading  for 
the  stables  and  Cecilia  at  the  kitchen  window, 
I  pedaled  boldly  in.  Cecilia  wanted  to  borrow  my 
bicycle,  and  being  a  good  little  sister,  I  gave  it 
to  her.  She  also  said  that  you  required  food,  so 
I  told  her  to  go  and  I  would  carry  you  your 
breakfast.  I  shall  skip  myself  in  a  minute.  You 
may  draw  your  own  coffee.  Mind  the  machine; 
it  tips  if  you  are  n't  careful." 

189 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

She  went  to  the  window  and  peered  out  to- 
ward the  stables. 

"May  I  ask,  Daughter  of  Kings,  where  your 
sister  has  gone  so  suddenly?  " 

"  Certainly.  She 's  off  for  town  to  chase  a 
cook  and  a  few  other  people  to  run  this  hotel. 
I  heard  at  the  post-office  that  the  whole  camp 
had  deserted,  so  I  ran  over  to  see  what  was 
doing ;  and  just  for  that  I  Ve  got  to  walk 
home." 

"But  your  aunt  said  that  Providence  would 
take  care  of  the  servant  question;  she  expected 
a  whole  corps  of  ideal  servants  to  come  straying 
in  during  the  day." 

Hezekiah  laughed.  (It  is  not  right  for  any 
girl  to  be  as  pretty  as  Hezekiah,  or  to  laugh  as 
musically.)  She  told  me  to  sit  down,  and  as  I 
did  so  she  passed  the  toast  and  helped  herself 
to  a  slice  into  which  she  set  her  fine  white  teeth 
neatly,  watching  me  with  the  merriest  of  twin- 
kles in  her  brown  eyes. 

"Cecilia  has  n't  Aunt  Octavia's  confidence  in 
Providence,  so  she  's  taking  a  shot  at  the  em- 
ployment agencies.  She  has  left  a  note  on  the 
kitchen  table  to  inform  Aunt  Octavia  that  she 
had  forgotten  an  engagement  with  the  dentist 
and  has  gone  to  catch  the  ten-eighteen." 

"That,  Hezekiah,  is  a  lie.  It  isn't  quite 
190 


I  PLAY  TRUANT 


square  to  deceive  your  aunt  that  way,"  I  re- 
marked soberly. 

Hezekiah  laughed  again. 

"You  absurdity!  Don't  you  know  Aunt  Oc- 
tavia  yet!  She  will  be  perfectly  overjoyed  when 
she  comes  back  and  finds  that  note  from  Cecilia. 
She  likes  disappearances,  mysteries,  and  all  that 
kind  of  thing.  But  it  is  barely  possible  that  you 
will  have  to  wash  the  dishes.  I  can't,  you  see, 
for  I  'm  not  supposed  to  come  on  the  reserva- 
tion at  all  —  not  until  Cecilia  has  found  a  hus- 
band. Is  n't  it  perfectly  delicious?" 

"All  of  that,  Daughter  of  Kings!  I  think 
that  as  soon  as  I  can  regain  confidence  in  my 
own  sanity  I  shall  like  it  myself.  But,"  —  and 
I  watched  her  narrowly,  —  "y°u  see,  Hezekiah, 
there  is  really  a  ghost,  you  know." 

Once  more  that  divine  mirth  in  her  bubbled 
mellowly.  She  had  walked  guardedly  to  the 
window  and  turned  swiftly  with  a  mockery  of 
fear  in  her  face. 

"Aunt  Octavia  approaches,  and  I  must  be  off. 
But  that  ghost,  Mr.  Chimney-Man, — when  you 
find  him,  please  let  me  know.  There  are  a  lot  of 
things  I  want  to  ask  some  reliable  ghost  about 
the  hereafter." 

With  this  she  fled,  and  I  heard  the  front  door 
close  smartly  after  her.  An  instant  later  Miss 

191 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

Octavia  appeared  and  asked  solicitously  how  I 
liked  my  omelette. 

"The  coachman  has  been  telling  me  a  capital 
ghost-story.  He  believes  them  to  be  beneficent, 
and  declares  that  he  will  under  no  circumstances 
leave  my  employment." 

She  sat  down  and  folded  her  arms  upon  the 
table.  For  the  first  time  I  believed  that  she  was 
serious.  There  was,  in  fact,  a  troubled  look  on 
her  sweet,  whimsical  face.  It  occurred  to  me 
that  the  loss  of  her  servants  was  not  really  the 
slight  matter  she  had  previously  made  of  it. 

"Mr.  Ames,  will  you  pardon  me  for  asking 
you  a  question  of  the  most  intimate  character? 
It  is  only  after  much  hesitation  that  I  do 
so." 

I  bowed  encouragingly,  my  curiosity  fully 
aroused. 

"You  may  ask  me  anything  in  the  world,  Miss 
Hollister." 

"Then  I  wish  you  would  tell  me  whether,  — 
I  can't  express  the  dislike  I  feel  in  doing  this,  — 
but  can  you  tell  me  whether  you  have  seen  in 
the  hands  of  my  niece  Cecilia  a  small  —  a  very 
small,  silver-backed  note-book." 

16  Yes,  I  have,"  I  answered,  greatly  surprised. 

"And  may  I  ask  whether,  —  and  again  I  must 
plead  my  deep  concern  as  an  excuse  for  making 

192 


I  PLAY  TRUANT 


such  an  inquiry,  —  whether  you  by  any  chance 
saw  her  making  any  notation  in  that  book?" 

I  recalled  the  silver-bound  book  perfectly, 
but  had  attached  no  importance  to  it;  but  if 
Cecilia's  fortunes  were  so  intimately  related  to 
it  as  Miss  Hollister's  manner  implied,  I  felt  that 
I  must  be  careful  of  my  answer.  I  was  trying  to 
recall  the  precise  moment  at  which  I  had  entered 
the  library  the  preceding  evening  after  Hume's 
departure,  and  while  I  was  intent  upon  this  my 
silence  must  have  been  prolonged.  I  felt  obliged 
to  make  an  answer  of  some  sort,  and  yet  I  did  not 
relish  the  thought  of  conveying  information  that 
might  distress  and  embarrass  a  noble  girl  like 
Cecilia  Hollister.  Something  in  my  face  must 
have  conveyed  a  hint  of  this  inner  conflict  to 
Miss  Hollister,  for  she  rose  suddenly,  holding  up 
her  hand  as  though  to  silence  me.  She  seemed 
deeply  moved,  and  cried  in  agitation:  — 

"Do  not  answer  me!  The  question  was  quite 
unfair,  —  quite  unfair,  —  and  yet  I  assure  you 
that  at  the  moment  I  made  the  inquiry,  I  felt 
justified." 

She  retreated  toward  the  door  as  I  rose;  and 
then  with  her  composure  fully  restored  she  cour- 
tesied  gracefully. 

"Luncheon  here  will  be  a  buffet  affair  to-day, 
as  I  shall  be  engaged  with  matters  of  pastry. 

193 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

I'm  sure,  however,  that  you  will  find  employment 
until  dinner-time,  when  my  house  will  be  fully 
in  order  again." 

I  intended  that  this  should  be  a  busy  day,  so 
without  making  explanations  I  went  to  the 
stable,  told  the  coachman  I  wished  to  be  driven 
to  the  station,  and  was  soon  whizzing  over  the 
hills  toward  Katonah.  The  coachman,  an  Irish- 
man, introduced  the  subject  of  the  ghost  as  soon 
as  we  were  out  of  sight  of  the  house. 

"The  ole  lady's  dipped;  she's  dipped,  sir,"  he 
remarked  leadingly. 

"It's  catching,"  I  answered;  "so  you'd  better 
forget  it." 

He  thereupon  settled  glumly  to  his  driving. 
As  we  crossed  the  bridge  near  where  I  had  first 
encountered  Hezekiah  in  the  apple-orchard,  I 
spied  her  trudging  across  a  meadow,  and  she 
waved  her  hand  gaily.  Meadows  and  streams 
and  stars!  Of  such  were  Hezekiah's  kingdom. 

I  wondered  how  Wiggins  and  the  other  gentle- 
men at  the  Prescott  Arms  were  faring.  My  ques- 
tion was  partially  answered  a  second  later,  as  we 
passed  the  road  that  forked  off  to  the  inn.  On  a 
stone  by  the  roadside  sat  Lord  Arrowood,  deso- 
lately guarding  a  kit-bag  and  a  suit-case.  He 
was  dressed  in  a  shabby  Norfolk  jacket  and 
knickerbockers,  and  sucked  a  pipe. 

194 


I  PLAY  TRUANT 

I   bade   the  driver    pause,  and   greeted   the 
nobleman  affably. 


"  Can  I  give  you  a  lift  ?  You  seem  to  be 
bound  for  the  station,  and  I'm  taking  a  train 
myself." 

"No,  thanks,"  he  replied  sharply.  "They're  a 
lot  of  bounders,  —  bounders,  I  say!" 

195 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

"Ah!  Of  whom  do  you  speak,  Lord  Arrow- 
wood?"  I  asked  glancing  at  my  watch. 

"Those  scoundrels  at  the  inn.  They  have 
thrown  me  out.  Thrown  me  out  —  me!" 

"Hard  lines,  for  a  fact;  but  if  you  are  inter- 
ested in  trains  " 

"I  refuse  to  leave  the  county!"  he  shouted. 
"If  they  think  they're  going  to  get  rid  of  me 
they're  mistaken.  Bounders,  I  say,  bounders!" 

He  uttered  this  opprobrious  term  with  great 
bitterness,  and  crossed  his  legs,  as  though  to 
emphasize  his  permanence  upon  the  boulder. 
Patience  on  a  monument  is  not  more  eternally 
planted.  He  seemed  in  no  mood  for  conversa- 
tion, so  I  sped  on,  with  no  time  to  lose. 

I  gained  the  step  of  the  chair-car  attached  to 
the  ten-eighteen  \vith  some  loss  of  dignity,  the 
porter  yanking  me  aboard  under  the  conductor's 
scornful  eye.  The  Katonah  passengers  were 
still  in  the  aisle,  and  as  I  surveyed  them  I  saw 
Cecilia  take  a  seat  in  the  middle  of  the  car.  She 
was  just  unfolding  a  newspaper  when  I  moved 
to  a  seat  behind  her  and  bade  her  good-morning. 

The  look  she  gave  me  in  turning  round  had  in 
it  something  of  Hezekiah's  quizzical  humor. 
This  interested  me,  because  I  had  not  previously 
seen  any  but  the  most  superficial  resemblance 
between  the  sisters.  Her  cheeks  were  aglow  from 

196 


I  PLAY  TRUANT 


her  sprint  on  the  wheel.  The  short  skirt  and  the 
shirt  waist  are  the  true  vesture  of  emancipated 
woman.  Cecilia  Hollister,  whose  apparel  at  home 
had  struck  me  as  rather  formal,  seemed  this  morn- 
ing quite  a  new  being.  She  drew  a  folded  veil 
from  the  pocket  of  her  jacket,  removed  her  hat, 
and  pinned  the  veil  to  it.  She  kept  the  hat  in  her 
lap,  however,  and  went  on  talking. 

"We  are  both  truants.  You  must  have  break- 
fasted in  a  hurry  to  have  caught  this  train." 

"Not  at  all.  I  enjoyed  a  brief  conversation 
with  your  sister,  and  after  she  had  gone,  your 
aunt  came  back  and  lingered  for  a  moment." 

"She  told  you,  I  suppose,  that  Providence 
would  look  after  the  servant  question." 

"She  did,  just  that." 

"Well,  Providence  is  hardly  equal  to  getting 
enough  servants  to  run  that  place,  so  I'm  going 
to  assist  Providence  a  little." 

;'You  become  the  vicaress  of  Providence?  I 
admire  your  spirit." 

"It's  mere  self-preservation.  Aunt  Octavia 
would  have  me  chained  to  the  kitchen  if  I  did  n't 
do  something  about  it." 

She  had  permitted  me  to  settle  with  the  con- 
ductor, and  when  I  had  completed  this  transac- 
tion I  found  that  she  had  drawn  from  her  purse 
the  little  silver  booklet  about  which  Miss  Oc- 

197 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

tavia  had  inquired  so  anxiously.  She  held  this 
close  to  her  eyes,  so  that  I  had  a  clear  view  of 
the  silver  backs,  on  one  of  which  "C.  H."  was 
engraved  in  neat  script.  The  subjoined  pencil 
she  held  poised  ready  for  use,  touching  the  tip  of 
it  absent-mindedly  to  her  tongue.  She  raised  her 
eyes  with  the  far-away  look  still  in  them. 

"  Can  you  tell  me  how  to  spell  Arrowood,  — 
is  it  one  or  two  w's?" 

"One,  I  think  the  noble  lord  uses." 

She  seemed  to  write  the  name,  and  I  saw  her 
counting  on  her  fingers,  touching  them  lightly  on 
the  open  page  of  the  book. 

Then  she  dropped  it  into  her  purse,  which  she 
thrust  back  carefully  into  her  pocket.  She  sighed, 
and  was  silent  for  a  moment.  "We  were  passing  a 
series  of  huge  signs  built  like  a  barricade  along  the 
right  of  way,  and  on  one  of  these  I  observed  with 
fresh  interest  an  advertisement  whose  counter- 
part I  had  seen  often  about  New  York,  but  with- 
out ever  observing  it  attentively.  It  drew  a 
laugh  from  me  now.  It  represented  an  infant  in 
a  perambulator,  behind  which  stood  the  effigy  of 
a  capped  and  aproned  nurse.  A  legend  was  in- 
scribed on  the  board  to  this  effect :  — 

HUSH !   BABY  's  ASLEEP. 
It's  a  HOLLISTER  PERAMBULATOR  ! 

198 


I  PLAY  TRUANT 


"If  it's  a  Hollister,"  I  remarked  as  a  second 
of  these  flew  by  the  window,  "it's  perfect." 

"Oh,  those  things!"  she  exclaimed. 

"I  was  n't  referring  to  the  perambulator  ne- 
cessarily. Anything  that's  Hollister  must  be 
good." 

"We're  out  of  the  business,  except  that  Aunt 
Octavia  gets  a  dollar  for  every  one  that's  made; 
but  the  trust  keeps  the  name." 

"The  trust  could  hardly  change  your  name. 
You  will  have  to  do  that  yourself." 

"You've  been  talking  to  Hezekiah.  That's 
the  way  people  always  talk  to  her." 

"  It 's  certainly  not  the  way  I  've  been  talking 
to  you;  but  we've  run  away  from  school,  and 
I'm  disposed  to  make  the  most  of  it.  Our  con- 
versation at  your  aunt's  has  been  so  high  up  in 
the  air,  that  it 's  pleasant  to  come  down  to  earth 
and  tune  it  to  the  less  strenuous  note  of  a  twen- 
tieth-century railway  journey." 

"That,  Mr.  Ames,  may  depend  upon  the  point 
of  view." 

"  But  you  will  make  it  yours,  won't  you?  You 
see,  I ' ve  always  dreamed  of  adventures,  but  since 
I  met  your  aunt  in  the  Asolando  they've  been 
coming  a  little  too  fast.  There 's  that  ghost  busi- 
ness. Now  I  'm  going  to  catch  that  ghost  to-night, 
if  it's  the  last  thing  I  do!" 

199 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

"Well,  I'm  not  the  ghost,  and  neither  is  my 
father,  if  that's  what's  in  your  mind.  Tell  me 
just  what  you  have  seen  and  heard." 

I  gave  her  the  story  in  detail,  and  my  recital 
seemed  to  amuse  her  greatly. 

''You  thought  it  was  Aunt  Octavia  herself  at 
first,  then  you  thought  I  was  the  spook,  and  now 
you  are  not  fully  persuaded  that  it  is  not  my 
father.  I  will  take  you  into  my  confidence  this 
far  —  that  I  don't  know  how  father  got  into  the 
house  last  night.  He  wrote  a  note  asking  me  to 
meet  him  on  the  roof  and  bring  the  foils.  That 
was  not  unlike  him,  as  he  is  the  dearest  father  in 
the  world,  and  his  whims  are  just  as  jolly  in  their 
way  as  Aunt  Octavia's.  I  was  sure  that  Aunt  Oc- 
tavia had  retired  for  the  night,  so  I  changed  my 
dress  and  carried  the  foils  up  through  the  trunk- 
room.  I  had  hardly  reached  there  before  my 
father  appeared.  The  whole  situation  —  my  be- 
ing there  and  all  that  —  has  distressed  father  a 
great  deal;  so  I  let  you  see  me  cry  a  little.  I 
promise  never  to  do  it  again." 

Mirth  brightened  the  eyes  she  turned  upon 
me  now. 

'You  think,"  she  asked,  "that  those  lights 
could  n't  have  winked  out  twice  by  themselves 
while  you  were  on  the  stairway." 

"I  am  positive  of  it.  And  somebody  —  a 
200 


I  PLAY  TRUANT 


being  of  some  sort  —  passed  me  on  the  stairway. 
It  might  imaginably  have  been  you!" 

"But  I  tell  you  positively  it  was  not." 

"Then  it  might  have  been  your  father.  A  man 
who  can  enter  a  house  at  will  might  easily  play 
any  manner  of  other  tricks.  His  disappearance 
after  I  had  gone  down  into  the  house  with  him 
was  just  as  mysterious  as  the  ghost." 

"It  was  natural  for  father  not  to  want  you  to 
know  how  he  got  in;  the  motive  for  that  would 
be  the  fact  that  he  is  not  supposed  to  see  me  or 
communicate  with  me  in  any  way.  But  you  Ve 
got  to  get  a  ghost-motif." 

"I  think  I  have  one,"  I  said. 

"Then  all  the  rest  is  easy.  To  whom  does  this 
ghost-motif  lead  you?" 

"I  need  hardly  say;  for  it  must  have  occurred 
to  you  that  there  is  one  member  of  the  Hollister 
family  we  have  n't  mentioned  in  this  connec- 
tion." 
.  "  If  you  mean  Hezekiah"  — 

"None  other!" 

The  surprise  in  her  face  was  not  [feigned,  — 
I  was  confident  of  this,  —  and  the  questions 
evoked  by  my  answer  at  once  danced  in  her  eyes. 

"If  Hezekiah  should  be  caught  in  the  house 
just  now  we  should  all  pay  dearly  for  her  rash- 
ness. Believe  me,  this  is  true.  Some  day  you 

201 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

may  know  the  whys  and  wherefores ;  at  present 
no  one  may  know.  There  is  this,  however,  —  if 
Hezekiah  or  my  father  should  be  found  at  Hope- 
field  Manor,  anywhere  on  the  premises,  while  LI 
am  there,  the  consequences  would  be  disastrous, 
— more  so  than  I  dare  tell  you.  But  why  should 
Hezekiah  wish  to  prowl  about  there  at  night,  — 
to  assume  for  a  moment  that  she  is  doing  it?" 

Her  manner  was  wholly  earnest.  It  was  plain 
that  she  had  entered  into  some  sort  of  a  com- 
pact with  her  aunt,  and  no  doubt  the  arrange- 
ment was  in  the  characteristic  whimsical  vein 
of  which  I  had  enjoyed  personal  experience.  I 
did  not  wish  to  press  Cecilia  for  explanations  she 
might  not  be  free  to  make,  but  I  ventured  a  sug- 
gestion or  two. 

"Hezekiah  may  be  entering  the  house  and 
playing  ghost  for  amusement,  merely  in  a  spirit 
of  childish  rebellion  against  the  interdiction  that 
forbids  her  the  house.  That  is  quite  plausible, 
Hezekiah  being  the  spirited  young  person  we 
know  her  to  be.  And  it  may  amuse  her,  too,  to 
plug  the  chimneys  at  a  time  when  her  sister  is 
enjoying  the  visits  of  suitors.  Without  quite  real- 
izing that  such  was  her  animus,  she  may  be  the 
least,  —  the  very  least  bit  jealous!" 

Cecilia  flushed  and  her  eyes  flashed  indig- 
nantly. She  bent  toward  me  eagerly. 

202 


I  PLAY  TRUANT 


"Please  do  not  say  such  a  thing!  You  must 
not  even  think  it!" 

"She  may  be  a  little  forlorn,  alone  in  your 
father's  house  over  the  hills  at  times  when  you 
are  surrounded  by  admirers,  and  it  is  my  as- 
sumption from  what  I  have  learned  in  one  way 
and  another  of  your  flight  abroad  last  summer, 
that  some  of  these  gentlemen  now  established  at 
the  Prescott  Arms  are  known  to  her." 

"Oh,  all  of  them,  certainly." 

"And  Hartley  Wiggins  among  the  rest?" 

"That,  Mr.  Ames,  is  most  unkind,"  she  de- 
clared earnestly.  "She  has  told  me  that  she  was 
not  in  the  least  interested  in  Mr.  Wiggins." 

"And  she  told  me  the  same  thing,  but  I  do  not 
feel  sure  of  it !  But  what  if  she  is !  You  are  not 
really  interested  in  him  yourself!" 

In  the  library  at  Hopefield  Manor  I  should  not 
have  thought  of  speaking  to  Cecilia  Hollister 
in  any  such  fashion;  but  the  flying  train  gave 
wings  to  my  daring.  I  was  surprised  at  my  own 
temerity,  and  more  surprised  that  she  did  not 
seem  to  resent  my  new  manner  of  speech.  She 
did  not,  however,  vouchsafe  any  reply  to  my 
statement,  but  changed  the  subject  abruptly. 

My  description  of  the  ghost  had  taken  con- 
siderable time,  and  we  were  now  running  through 
the  tunnels  and  would  soon  be  at  the  end  of  our 

203 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

journey.  She  put  on  her  hat  and  veil  without 
making  it  necessary  for  us  to  discontinue  our 
talk.  A  certain  languor  that  had  marked  her  at 
her  aunt's  vanished.  There  was  a  clearer  light  in 
her  eye,  and  as  I  helped  her  into  her  coat  I  felt 
that  here  was  a  woman  to  whose  high  qualities 
I  had  done  scant  justice. 

"I  count  on  finishing  my  errand  and  taking 
the  two-seven,"  she  remarked. 

"That's  a  short  time  to  allow  yourself.  I've 
heard  that  it's  a  dreary  business  chasing  the 
employment  agencies." 

"Not  if  you  know  where  not  to  go.  If  you'll 
get  me  a  machine  of  some  sort  I  '11  be  off  at  once." 

"I  fear  I  shan't  conclude  my  own  business  so 
soon;  but  if  you  will  honor  me  at  luncheon?"  — 

This  last  was  at  the  door  of  a  taxicab  I  had 
found  for  her. 

"Sorry,  Mr.  Ames,  but  it's  out  of  the  question. 
I  hope  to  see  you  at  dinner  to-night.  And 
please"  — 

"Yes,  Miss  Hollister" 

"Please  remember  that  you  are  Aunt  Octa- 
via's  guest,  and  don't  annoy  her  by  failing  to  ap- 
pear at  dinner.  You  know  you  have  n't  fixed 
that  chimney  yet!" 

Her  smile  left  me  well  in  the  air;  I  stood  staring 
after  the  very  commonplace  cab  as  it  rolled  away 

204 


I  PLAY  TRUANT 


with  her,  my  mind  a  whirling  chaos  of  emotion. 
The  crowd  jostled  me  impatiently;  for  other 
people,  not  breathing  celestial  ether  from  an 
hour  of  Cecilia  Hollister's  society,  were  bent 
upon  the  day's  business. 

I  set  off  at  once  for  Pepperton's  office,  where  I 
learned  that  the  architect  was  out  of  town;  but 
his  chief  clerk  greeted  me  courteously.  I  told 
him  frankly  that  I  wanted  to  look  at  the  plans  of 
Hopefield  Manor  to  enable  me  to  learn  the  exact 
lines  of  the  chimneys.  He  confessed  surprise 
that  they  were  causing  trouble,  and  expressed 
regret  that  they  were  not  in  the  office. 

"Miss  Hollister  sent  for  them  this  morning, 
and  I  have  just  given  them  to  a  young  woman 
who  bore  a  note  from  her.  Ordinarily  I  should 
not  have  let  them  go,  but  the  note  was  peremp- 
tory, and  Miss  Hollister  is  a  friend  of  Mr.  Pep- 
perton's, you  know,  and  a  person  I'm  sure  he 
would  not  refuse.  We're  at  work  now  on  plans 
for  a  cathedral  she  proposes  building  for  the 
Bishop  of  Manila." 

I  was  not  surprised  that  Octavia  Hollister 
should  be  building  cathedrals  in  the  Orient,  —  I 
was  beyond  that,  —  but  I  was  taken  aback  to 
find  that  she  had  anticipated  me  in  my  rush  for 
the  plans  of  her  house.  Clearly,  I  was  dealing 
with  a  woman  who  was  not  only  immensely 

205 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

amusing  but  exceedingly  shrewd  as  well.  Could 
it  be  possible  after  all  that  she  was  herself  playing 
ghost  merely  for  her  own  entertainment!  She 
was  capable  of  it;  but  I  had  satisfied  myself  that 
she  could  not  have  performed  the  tricks  of  which 
I  had  been  the  victim  the  night  previous  unless 
she  possessed  some  rare  vanishing  power  like 
that  of  the  East  Indian  mystics. 

"May  I  ask  who  came  for  the  plans?" 
"I  judged  the  young  woman  to  be  a  maid,  or 
perhaps  she  was  Miss  Hollister's  secretary." 

I  had  given  little  heed  during  my  short  stay 
at  Hopefield  Manor  to  Miss  Hollister's  personal 
attendant.  I  had  passed  her  in  the  halls  once  or 
twice,  a  young  woman  of  twenty -five,  I  should 
say,  fair-haired  and  blue-eyed.  She  might  her- 
self be  the  ghost,  now  that  I  thought  of  it;  but 
this  seemed  the  most  unlikely  hypothesis  pos- 
sible, —  and  there  was  no  difficulty  in  account- 
ing for  her  flight  to  town,  for  there  were  many 
horses  and  vehicles  in  the  Hopefield  stable,  and 
trains  were  frequent. 

"If  there  is  anything  further,  Mr.  Ames" 
I  roused  myself  to  find  the  chief  clerk  regard- 
ing me  impatiently,   and  I  thanked  him    and 
hurried  away. 

At  my  own  office  my  assistant  pounced  upon 
me  wrathfully.  He  was  half  wild  over  the  pres- 

206 


I  PLAY  TRUANT 


sure  of  vexatious  business,  and  had  just  been  en- 
gaging in  a  long-distance  conversation  with  a 
country  gentleman  at  Lenox  which  had  left  him 
in  bad  temper.  I  was  explaining  to  him  the 
seriousness  of  my  errands  at  Hopefield,  rather 
unconvincingly  I  fear,  and  the  fact  that  I  must 
return  at  once,  when  the  office-boy  entered  my 
private  room  to  say  that  three  gentlemen  wished 
to  see  me  immediately.  They  had  submitted 
cards,  but  had  refused  to  state  the  nature  of 
their  business.  It  was  with  a  distinct  sensation 
of  surprise  that  I  read  the  names  respectively  of 
Percival  B.  Shallenberger,  Daniel  P.  Ormsby, 
and  John  Stewart  Dick. 

"Show  the  gentlemen  in,"  I  said  promptly, 
greatly  to  the  disgust  of  my  assistant,  who  re- 
tired to  deal  with  several  clients  whom  I  had 
passed  in  the  reception-room  fiercely  walking  the 
floor. 

I  had  imagined  all  the  suitors  established  at 
the  Prescott  Arms.  As  the  three  appeared  clad 
in  light  automobiling  coats,  I  could  not  forbear 
a  smile  at  their  grim  appearance.  Shallenberger, 
the  novelist,  and  Ormsby,  the  knit-goods  manu- 
facturer, were  big  men ;  Dick  was  much  shorter, 
though  of  compact  and  sturdy  build.  They 
growled  surlily  in  response  to  my  greeting,  and 
Ormsby  closed  the  door  behind  them.  Dick 

207 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

seemed  to  be  the  designated  spokesman,  and  he 
advanced  to  the  desk  behind  which  I  sat,  with 
a  stride  and  manner  that  advertised  his  belliger- 
ent frame  of  mind. 

"Mr.  Ames,"  he  began,  "we  have  come  here 
to  speak  for  ourselves  and  certain  other  gentle- 
men who  are  staying  for  a  time  at  the  Prescott 
Arms." 

"  Gentlemen  of  the  committee,  welcome  to  our 
office,"  I  replied,  greatly  amused  by  his  ferocity. 

My  tone  caused  the  others  to  draw  in  defen- 
sively behind  him. 

"We  want  you  to  understand  that  your  con- 
duct in  accompanying  a  lady  that  I  shall  not 
name  to  the  city  is  an  act  we  cannot  pass  in 
silence.  Your  conduct  in  going  to  Hopefield 
Manor  was  in  itself  an  affront  to  us,  but  your 
behavior  this  morning  passes  all  bounds.  We 
have  come,  sir,  to  demand  an  explanation!" 

At  a  glance  this  was  a  situation  I  dare  not 
take  seriously.  In  any  circumstances  the  fact 
that  these  men  had  followed  me  to  my  office  to 
rebuke  me  for  accompanying  Cecilia  Hollister  to 
town  was  absurd.  This  young  Mr.  Dick  was 
absurd  in  himself.  His  gray  cap  had  twisted 
itself  oddly  to  the  side  of  his  head,  and  a  bang  of 
black  hair  lay  at  a  piratical  angle  across  his  fore- 
head. Behind  him  Ormsby,  the  knit-goods  man, 

208 


I  PLAY  TRUANT 


tugged  at  a  brown  moustache;  Shallenberger's 
blue  eyes  snapped  wrathfully. 

"Mr.  Dick,"  I  said  soberly,  "I  have  heard  of 
you  as  the  original  pragmatist  of  Nebraska,  and 
as  I  am  a  mere  ignorant  chimney-doctor,  to 
whom  the  later  philosophical  meaning  of  that 
term  is  only  so  much  punk,  I  must  identify  you 
with  that  more  obvious  meaning  of  the  word 
which  is  within  my  grasp.  Mr.  Dick,  and  gentle- 
men of  the  committee,  you  are  meddlesome  per- 
sons!" 

"Meddlesome!"  cried  Dick,  heatedly,  and 
leaning  toward  me  across  my  desk,  "do  I  cor- 
rectly understand,  sir,  that  you  mean  to  insult 
us?" 

"Nothing  could  be  further  from  my  purpose. 
But  I  cannot  permit  you  to  imagine  that  I'm 
going  to  allow  you  to  beard  me  in  my  office  and 
criticise  my  conduct  in  regard  to  Miss  Cecilia 
Hollister  or  anybody  else.  As  a  philosopher 
from  the  fertile  corn-lands  of  Nebraska,  I  salute 
you  with  admiration ;  as  a  critic  of  my  ways  and 
manners,  I  show  you  the  door!" 

This  I  did  a  bit  jauntily,  and  I  had  a  feeling 
that  I  was  playing  my  part  well.  But  the  young 
man  before  me  seemed  to  swell  with  the  rage 
that  surged  within  him.  He  broke  out  furiously, 
beating  the  air  with  his  fist. 

209 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

'You  not  only  insult  this  committee,  but  you 
speak  with  intentional  disrespect  of  my  native 
state,  and  of  the  great  philosophical  school  of 
which  I  am  a  disciple.  Am  I  right?" 

''You  are  eminently  right,  Mr.  Dick.  Neither 
the  corn,  the  philosophical  schools,  nor  the  pack- 
ing-house statistics  of  your  native  Omaha  inter- 
est me  a  particle.  So  far  as  I  am  personally  con- 
cerned you  may  go  back  to  your  wigwam  on  the 
tawny  Missouri  as  soon  as  you  please." 

"Then,"  he  broke  forth  explosively,  "then, 
sir,  by  Minerva's  pale  brow,  and  by  all  the  gods 
at  once,  I  brand  you  " 

"Put  the  brand  on  hot,  little  one!  Make  it  a 
good  strong  curse  while  you're  about  it!" 

He  choked  with  rage  for  a  moment;  then  he 
controlled  himself  with  painful  effort. 

"My  personal  grievances  must  wait,"  con- 
tinued Dick,  brokenly,  "but  speaking  for  the 
committee  I  wish  to  say  that  your  attentions 
to  the  young  lady  whom  you  have  dared,  sir,  to 
name,  are  obnoxious  to  us." 

"Nothing  less  than  that!"  added  Shallenber- 
ger. 

"We  will  not  stand  for  it,"  growled  Ormsby's 
heavy  bass. 

"Mr.  Shallenberger,"  I  replied  evenly,  "as  a 
member  of  the  great  Hoosier  school  of  novelists 

210 


I  PLAY  TRUANT 


I  have  the  most  prof ound  respect  for  your  talents. 
My  office-boy  is  dead  to  the  world  for  weeks 
after  the  appearance  of  a  novel  from  your  pen. 
But  your  interference  in  my  private  affairs  is 
beyond  all  reason.  And  as  for  you,  Mr.  Ormsby, 
I  dare  say  your  knit-goods  are  worthy  of  the 
fame  of  the  pent-up  Utica  from  which  you  come. 
But  to  you  and  all  of  you,  I  bid  defiance.  I  re- 
turn to  Hopefield  Manor  by  the  four-fourteen 
express." 

I  rose  and  bowed  coldly  in  dismissal;  but  the 
trio  stood  their  ground  stubbornly. 

"I  tell  you,  sir,  our  organization  is  complete!" 
declared  Dick.  "We  signed  a  gentleman's  agree- 
ment only  last  night,  for  the  express  purpose  of 
excluding  you,  and  you  cannot  enter  as  a  com- 
petitor. You  are  only  an  outsider,  and  we  don't 
intend  to  have  you  interfering  with  our  affairs." 

"By  the  pink  left  ear  of  Venus!"  I  blurted, 
"is  it  a  trust?" 

:' You  put  it  coarsely,  Mr.  Ames,  but"  — 

"A  suitors'  trust?  Then  if  I  read  the  news- 
papers correctly,  your  organization  is  against 
public  policy  and  in  contravention  of  the  anti- 
trust law.  But  may  I  inquire  why,  if  you  have 
perfected  a  combination  of  Miss  Hollister's 
suitors,  I  found  Lord  Arrowood  this  morning 
sitting  on  a  stone  by  the  roadside,  evidently  in 

211 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

the  greatest  dejection.  Can  it  be  possible  that  an 
insurgent  has  crept  into  your  organization  and 
incurred  the  displeasure  of  the  regulars?" 

"We  ruled  him  out,"  Shallenberger  burst 
forth,  "because  he  was  a  foreigner  and  not  en- 
titled to  a  place  among  free-born  Americans  ! 
That  is  one  reason;  and  for  another,  the  colors  of 
his  half -hose  were  an  offense  to  me,  personally." 

"And  for  another  reason,"  interposed  Ormsby, 
"he  had  no  money  with  which  to  pay  his  board 
at  the  Prescott  Arms.  For  this  just  cause  the 
landlord  ejected  him  shortly  after  breakfast  this 
morning." 

"Then  there  is  already  a  rift  in  the  lute!"  I 
returned.  "No  trust  of  suitors  is  stronger  than 
its  weakest  link.  By  the  bloody  footprints  of  our 
forefathers  on  the  snows  of  Valley  Forge,  I  stand 
for  the  right  of  the  American  girl  to  choose  where 
she  will.  You  may  perch  on  the  hills  about  Hope- 
field  Manor,  and  besiege  Cecilia  Hollister  till  the 
end  of  time,  but  my  hand  is  raised  against  your 
unrighteous  compact,  and  I  am  in  the  fight  to 
stay !  Go  back  to  the  Prescott  Arms,  gentlemen, 
and  assure  your  associates  in  this  hideous  com- 
pact of  my  most  distinguished  consideration  and 
tell  them  to  go  to  the  devil." 

I  had  gone  to  the  St.  Parvenu  Hotel  to  call 


I  PLAY  TRUANT 


upon  a  Washington  lady  who  had  been  making 
life  a  burden  to  my  assistant,  and  on  coming  out 
into  Fifth  Avenue  shortly  after  one,  bethought 
me  of  the  Asolando  Tea-Room.  My  interview 
with  the  committee  of  the  suitors  had  driven 
from  my  mind  practically  every  consideration 
and  every  interest  not  centred  in  Hopefield 
Manor.  My  thoughts  turned  gratefully  to  the 
Asolando,  where  only  a  few  days  ago  I  had  been 
precipitated  into  the  strangest  adventures  my 
eventless  life  had  known. 

A  strange  face  was  visible  at  the  cashier's  desk 
as  I  entered  the  tea-room.  I  passed  on,  finding 
the  place  quite  full,  but  I  took  it  as  a  good  omen 
that  the  seventh  table  from  the  right  was  unoc- 
cupied, and  I  hastily  appropriated  it.  A  waitress 
appeared  promptly,  murmuring,  — 

"  There  are  no  birds  in  last  year's  nest,"  — 

and  recommended  a  Locker-Lampson  sandwich, 
whose  contents  the  girl  told  me  were  secret,  but 
it  proved  to  be  wholly  palatable.  As  I  drank  my 
tea  and  ate  the  sandwich  I  surveyed  the  decora- 
ted menu  card  with  interest,  and  found  pleasur- 
able excitement  in  discovering  an  item  directing 
attention  to  "Pickles  a  la  Hezekiah,  15  cents." 
The  delightful  Hezekiah  must,  then,  have  im- 
pressed herself  upon  the  deus  ex  machina  of  the 

213 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

Asolando  on  her  brief  day  there,  thus  to  have  won 
this  recognition.  And  further  on  I  noted,  among 
the  desserts,  Peche  Cecilie,  with  even  greater 
interest  and  satisfaction.  Miss  Hollister's  nieces 
were  among  ten  thousand  young  women,  and 
it  was  quite  believable  that  their  brief  tenure 
of  office  in  the  tea-room  had  fixed  them  perma- 
nently in  the  heart  of  the  unknown  proprietor. 

The  girl  at  the  cash-desk  was  reading,  her  head 
bent  as  demurely  as  Hezekiah's  had  been  on  that 
memorable  afternoon;  but  I  did  not  care  for  the 
stranger's  profile.  I  tried  to  fancy  Cecilia  in  cap 
and  apron  serving  these  tables,  but  my  imagina- 
tion was  not  equal  to  the  task. 

Cecilia  occupied  my  mind  now.  The  visit  of 
the  furious  suitors  to  my  office  had  stirred  in  me 
thoughts  and  aspirations  that  had  never  known 
harborage  in  my  breast  before.  The  presump- 
tion of  those  fellows  had  exceeded  anything  I  had 
known  in  my  contact  with  human  kind,  and  in- 
stead of  frightening  me  away  from  Hopefield 
Manor,  they  had  called  my  own  attention  to  the 
strategic  importance  of  my  present  position  as  a 
guest  in  Miss  Octavia's  house.  Here  was  a  siege 
of  suitors  indeed;  but  I  was  resolved  to  make 
the  most  of  my  position  within  the  barricade. 

As  these  thoughts  ran  through  my  mind,  I  was 
finishing  my  Peche  Cecilie  (I  spurn  all  sweets 

214 


I  PLAY  TRUANT 


ordinarily),  when  I  became  interested  in  the 
unusual  conduct  of  a  young  woman  who  had 
entered  the  front  door  briskly  and  walked  with  a 
business-like  air  to  the  cashier's  desk.  The  girl 
within  the  wicket  rose  promptly,  opened  the 
screen,  and  without  parley  of  any  sort,  emptied 
the  contents  of  her  till  into  the  visitor's  reticule. 
With  a  nod  and  a  smile  and  a  moment's  care- 
less survey  of  the  room,  the  girl  departed,  swing- 
ing the  reticule  in  her  hand.  A  long  roll  she  carried 
under  her  arm  confirmed  my  identification.  It 
was  Miss  Octavia  Hollister's  Swedish  maid ;  and 
the  roll,  beyond  perad venture,  contained  the 
plans  she  had  obtained  at  Pepperton's  office. 

The  girl  was  well-featured,  neat  of  figure,  and 
becomingly  gowned,  and  as  I  watched  her  leave 
the  shop  the  lightness  of  her  step,  something 
smooth  and  flowing  in  her  movements,  interested 
me.  I  did  not  know  what  business  she  had  to  be 
robbing  the  Asolando  money-drawer,  but  it  was 
altogether  possible  that  she  was  the  Hopefield 
ghost ! 

On  the  whole,  when  I  had  finally  torn  myself 
away  from  my  assistant,  —  who  made  no  at- 
tempt to  conceal  his  doubts  as  to  my  sanity,  — 
and  had  settled  myself  in  the  four-fourteen 
express  with  the  afternoon  papers,  I  was  fully 
satisfied  with  the  day's  adventures. 


XII 

THE   RIDDLE    OF    THE    SIBYI/S    LEAVES 

I  HAD  told  the  coachman  in  the  morning  not  to 
trouble  to  meet  me  on  my  return,  and  I  engaged 
the  village  liveryman  to  drive  me  to  the  house 
for  hire.  As  we  approached  Hopefield  I  saw  the 
Napoleonic  figure  of  John  Stewart  Dick  in  the 
roadway.  He  had  evidently  been  waiting  for  me. 
He  held  up  his  hand  with  the  superb,  impersonal 
scorn  of  a  Fifth  Avenue  policeman,  and  the 
driver  checked  his  horse. 

"I  gave  you  warning,"  he  said  impressively. 
"If  you  return  to  the  house  the  consequences 
will  be  upon  your  own  head." 

"Thank  you,"  I  replied  courteously.  ;'You 
lay  yourself  open  to  the  severest  penalties  of  the 
law  in  attempting  to  intimidate  me.  I  have  en- 
listed for  the  whole  campaign.  Sick  chimneys 
require  my  immediate  professional  attention. 
If  my  bark  sink,  't  is  to  another  sea.  Be  good, 
dear  child,  let  those  who  will  be  clever;  and 

v 

kindly  omit  flowers." 

As  the  driver  slapped  his  reins,  Dick  sprang 
out  of  the  way,  muttering  words  that  proved  the 

216 


THE  RIDDLE  OF  THE  SIBYL'S  LEAVES 

shallowness  of  his  philosophic  temper.  The  livery- 
man expressed  his  disapproval  of  the  pragmatist 
in  profane  terms  as  we  entered  the  grounds. 

"There's  a  heap  o'  talk  in  the  village,"  he  ob- 
served. "They  do  say  the  old  lady  's  cracked,  if 
I  may  so  speak  of  her;  and  that  there's  ghosts  in 
the  house.  And  the  conduct  of  the  gentlemen 
at  the  Prescott  is  most  remarkable.  The  word  's 
passed  that  they're  all  dippy  about  the  young 
Miss  Hollister  that  lives  with  her  aunt.  I  reckon 
all  rich  people  are  a  bit  cracked.  It  appears  to  go 
with  the  money.  Mr.  Bassford  Hollister,  —  he 's 
the  old  lady's  brother,  —  he's  just  as  bad  as  any 
of  'em.  I've  drove  in  these  parts  fifteen  year, 
and  I  've  worked  a  heap  for  the  rich,  but  I  never 
seen  nothin'  like  the  Hollisters.  They  say  Mr. 
Bassford  is  about  broke  now.  Had  his  share  of 
the  baby-wagon  money  and  blew  it  in,  and  now 
the  old  lady's  marryin'  off  the  girls  and  he  gets 
no  money  out  of  her  if  he  takes  a  hand  in  that 
game.  She's  doin'  it  to  suit  herself.  That  Bass- 
ford  is  always  up  to  somethin'  queer.  Yesterday 
he  sat  in  the  village  street  countin'  the  number 
of  people  he  saw  chewin'  gum.  Hung  around  the 
school-house  watchin'  the  children  to  see  how 
many  had  their  jaws  goin'.  Takin'  notes  just  like 
the  census  man  and  tax  assessor.  Told  our  doc- 
tor in  the  village  he  was  figurin'  the  amount  of 

217 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

horse-power  the  American  people  put  into  gum- 
chewing  every  year,  and  expects  to  find  some 
way  of  usin'  it  to  run  machinery.  It's  harmless, 
Doc  says.  He  calls  it  just  the  Hollister  idio- 
syncrasy, if  that's  the  word.  But  I  reckon  it's 
idiotsyncrasy  all  right.  I  wish  you  good  luck  of 
your  place,  sir." 

He  evidently  believed  me  to  be  some  sort  of 
upper  servant,  and  this  added  to  my  joy  of  the 
day.  With  my  good  humor  augmented  by  the  in- 
terview, I  entered  the  house.  A  strange  footman 
admitted  me,  and  I  went  to  my  room  at  once 
without  meeting  any  one  else. 

The  man  followed  me  with  a  penciled  note, 
signed  with  Cecilia's  initials,  requesting  my 
presence  below  as  soon  as  possible,  as  she  wished 
to  see  me  before  dinner.  The  thought  that  she 
wished  to  see  me  at  any  time  filled  me  with  ela- 
tion ;  and  her  few  lines  scratched  on  a  corre- 
spondence card  were  a  pleasing  addendum  to  our 
conversation  of  the  morning.  I  only  wondered 
whether  I  should  find  her  the  sober,  reserved 
young  woman  of  our  earlier  acquaintance,  or 
whether  she  would  choose  to  renew  the  good 
comradeship  of  our  talk  on  the  train.  The  find- 
ing of  my  assistant's  telegraphed  resignation  on 
my  dressing-table,  to  take  effect  in  January,  had 
not  the  slightest  effect  upon  the  lofty  minarets 

218 


THE  RIDDLE  OF  THE  SIBYL'S  LEAVES 

in  which  my  fancy  now  found  lodgment.  It 
pleased  me  to  believe  that  fighting  blood  still 
pulsed  in  the  last  of  the  house  of  Ames,  and  that 
I  had  hurled  defiance  at  the  organized  band  of 
suitors  that  guarded  the  Hopefield  gates  and 
picketed  the  surrounding  hills. 

My  question  as  to  which  Cecilia  I  should  find 
in  the  library  was  quickly  answered.  Her  frank 
smile,  the  candor  of  her  eyes,  confessed  a  new 
tie  between  us;  we  were  becoming  conspirators 
within  the  main  conspiracy,  whatever  its  char- 
acter might  be. 

"As  to  Providence  and  the  cook  —  what 
luck?"  I  asked. 

"Oh,  I  managed  that  very  easily.  I  ran  into 
some  friends  who  were  going  abroad  for  the 
winter.  They  have  a  staff  of  unusual  servants, 
and  were  anxious  to  keep  them  together  until 
their  return.  I  promptly  engaged  them  all,  and 
they  are  even  now  installed.  I  came  up  on  the 
train  with  them,  and  as  they  are  unusually  in- 
telligent and  biddable,  they  agreed  to  stray  in 
in  a  casual  and  desultory  way  through  the  after- 
noon. Aunt  Octavia  really  believed,  or  pre- 
tended she  did,  which  is  just  as  good,  that  Provi- 
dence had  sent  them,  and  was  delighted.  The 
laundress  —  the  last  to  appear  —  has  just  ar- 
rived, and  Aunt  Octavia  is  in  fine  humor.  She 

219 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

did  n't  even  ask  me  how  I  came  off  in  my 
encounter  at  the  dentist's.  She  had  filled  the 
pie-pantry  and  had  a  good  time  while  I  was 
gone." 

"Well,  I  have  had  an  adventure  of  my  own," 
I  remarked,  after  expressing  my  relief  that  she 
had  solved  the  servant  difficulty  with  so  much 
ease.  "A  committee  of  gentlemen  waited  on  me 
in  my  office  on  a  matter  of  grave  importance." 

She  lifted  her  brows,  and  folded  her  hands 
upon  her  knees  —  it  was  a  pretty  way  she  had. 

"Was  it  the  freedom  of  the  city,  or  some  high 
recognition  of  your  professional  ability,  Mr. 
Ames?" 

"Oh,  far  more  exciting!  Three  gentlemen, 
representing  the  suitors'  trust  now  maintaining 
headquarters  at  the  Prescott  Arms,  warned  me 
solemnly  to  keep  off  the  grass.  In  other  words, 
I  am  not  to  interfere  with  their  designs  upon  the 
heart  of  Miss  Cecilia  Hollister." 

She  flung  open  a  fan,  held  it  at  arm's  length, 
and  scrutinized  the  daffodils  that  were  traced 
upon  it. 

"So  they  dared  you?" 

"So  they  dared  me.   And  I  took  the  dare." 

"Why?" 

Her  eyes  met  mine  gravely,  but  behind  her 
pretty  moue  a  smile  lurked  delightfully. 

220 


THE  RIDDLE  OF  THE  SIBYL'S  LEAVES 

"If  I  should  tell  you  now  it  would  be  flirting, 
which  is  a  sin." 

"I  had  imagined,  Mr.  Ames,  that  that  sort  of 
thing  came  easy  to  you.  But  if  it's  sinful,  of 
course"  — 


?^* 


"But  you  do  not  rule  me  out!  You  will  give 
me  a  chance" 

My  earnestness  caused  her  manner  to  change 
suddenly.  Her  beautiful  gravity  came  like  a 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

swift  falling  of  starlit  twilight.  I  had  never  been 
so  happy  as  at  this  moment.  Preposterous  as 
were  the  circumstances  of  my  presence  in  the 
house,  the  juxtaposition  of  Cecilia  Hollister  gave 
me  unalloyed  delight.  The  animosity  of  the 
gentlemen  at  the  Prescott  Arms  —  an  animosity 
which  the  interview  in  my  office  had  doubtless 
intensified  —  quickened  my  satisfaction  in  thus 
being  within  the  walls  that  guarded  the  lady  of 
their  adoration.  She  had  not  answered  me,  and 
I  felt  my  heart  pounding  in  the  silence. 

"I  want  to  serve  you,  now,  hereafter,  and 
always,"  I  added.  "These  men  can  have  no 
claim  upon  you  greater  than  that  of  any  other 
man  who  dares!" 

"No,  none  whatever,"  she  replied  firmly. 

"And  the  mystery,  the  whole  story,  is  in  the 
little  silver  book!" 

She  started,  flushed,  and  then  laughter  visited 
her  lips  and  eyes.  The  book  was  not  in  her  hands 
nor  in  sight  anywhere,  but  I  felt  that  I  was  on  the 
right  track,  and  that  the  little  trinket  had  to  do 
with  her  plight  and  her  compact  with  her  aunt. 
Best  of  all,  the  fact  that  I  had  chanced  upon  this 
clue  gave  her  happiness.  There  was  no  debating 
that. 

:'You  had  best  have  a  care,  Mr.  Ames.  You 
have  spoken  words  that  would  be  treasonable  if 

222 


THE  RIDDLE  OF  THE  SIBYL'S  LEAVES 

they  came  from  me,  and  I  must  not  countenance 
them." 

"But  you  will  tolerate  from  me  words  that  you 
would  not  permit  another  to  speak?  Do  I  go  too 
far?" 

She  bent  her  head  to  one  side,  —  with  the 
slightest  inclination,  as  of  a  rose  touched  by  a 
vagrant  wind. 

"If  I  could  only  half  believe  in  you,"  she  said, 
"you  might  really  serve  me.  So  those  gentlemen 
warned  you  away!  Their  presumption  is  cer- 
tainly astounding." 

"They  know  nothing  of  the  silver  book!" 

"They  know  less  than  you  do,  —  and  you 
have  a  good  deal  to  learn,  you  know." 

"I  am  dull  enough,  but  I  have  no  ambition  but 
to  read  the  riddle  of  the  sibyl's  leaves.  That  and 
the  laying  of  the  ghost  are  my  immediate  busi- 
ness. As  for  the  gentlemen  at  the  Prescott,  in- 
cluding my  old  friend  Hartley  Wiggins,  I  am  not 
in  the  least  afraid  of  them.  My  hand  is  raised 
against  them.  If  it 's  a  case  of  the  test  of  Ulysses 
over  again,  I  'm  as  likely  as  any  of  them  to  bend 
the  bow." 

I  thought  this  well  spoken,  but  she  seemed 
amused,  though  without  unkindness,  by  the 
earnestness  of  my  speech. 

"If  your  wit  is  equal  to  your  valor,  you  may 
223 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

go  far.  But"  -  and  she  turned  her  eyes  full 
upon  me-  "we  must  play  the  game  according 
to  the  rules." 

"And  as  for  Hartley  Wiggins" 

She  sat  up  very  straight,  and  the  sudden  dis- 
dain in  her  face  startled  me.  I  had  forgotten 
my  eavesdropping  in  the  clump  of  raspberries 
on  the  day  of  my  arrival.  Certainly  Wiggins 
had  been  decidedly  in  the  race  then,  and  my 
heart  thumped  in  resentment  as  I  recalled  her 
own  message,  all  compact  of  encouragement, 
which  I  had  borne  to  Wiggins  at  the  Prescott 
Arms. 

"I  will  tell  you  something,  Mr.  Ames.  This 
afternoon,  as  I  drove  from  the  station,  I  came 
round  by  the  lake,  merely  to  cool  my  eyes  on  the 
water,  and  I  saw  Mr.  Wiggins  and  my  sister 
seated  on  a  wall  in  an  old  orchard.  They  were  so 
busily  engaged  that  they  did  not  see  me.  At 
least  he  did  not;  but  I  think  Hezekiah  did." 

"Hezekiah,"  I  answered,  relieved  by  the 
nature  of  her  disclosure,  which  could  not  but 
prejudice  Wiggins'  case,  "Hezekiah  is  fond  of 
orchards.  I  dare  say  this  was  the  same  one  in 
which  I  had  a  charming  talk  with  her  myself. 
Doubtless  she  was  amusing  herself  with  Wiggins 
just  as  she  did  with  me.  She  finds  the  genus 
homo  entertaining." 

224 


THE  RIDDLE  OF  THE  SIBYL'S  LEAVES 

"She  is  the  dearest  girl  in  the  world,  — the 
sweetest,  the  loveliest,  the  brightest.  Mr.  Wig- 
gins has  treated  her  outrageously.  He  has  taken 
advantage  of  her  youth  and  susceptible  nature." 

"His  punishment  is  sure,"  I  answered  com- 
placently. "  Hezekiah  laughed  when  I  mentioned 
his  name.  And  you  frown  to-day  at  the  thought 
of  him." 

"Aunt  Octavia  is  coming,"  she  remarked, 
feigning  at  once  a  careless  air;  but  I  was  content 
that  she  let  my  remark  pass  unchallenged. 

Miss  Octavia's  entrances  were  always  effec- 
tive. She  appeared  to-night  charmingly  gowned, 
but  the  bright  twinkle  in  her  eyes  made  it  clear 
that  no  matter  of  dress  could  affect  her  humor  or 
spirit.  She  greeted  me,  as  she  always  did,  as 
though  our  acquaintance  were  a  matter  of  years 
rather  than  of  days.  I  even  imagined  that  she 
seemed  pleased  to  find  me  back  again.  She 
asked  no  questions  as  to  my  day's  occupations, 
but  as  we  went  in  to  dinner  sallied  forth  cheer- 
fully upon  a  description  of  her  own  activities. 

"After  I  had  baked  my  required  quota  of  pies 
this  morning,  I  sought  recreation  at  the  traps. 
The  stable-boy  who  has  been  pulling  the  string 
for  me  having  struck- work,  it  most  providen- 
tially happened  that  I  espied  Lord  Arrowood 
hanging  on  the  edge  of  the  maple  tangle  beyond 

225 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

the  barn.  I  summoned  him  at  once  and  put 
him  to  work  managing  the  traps  for  me,  finding 
him  most  efficient.  He  seemed  extremely  de- 
spondent, and  after  I  had  satisfied  myself  that 
two  out  of  three  was  not  an  impossible  record  for 
one  of  my  years,  I  brought  him  to  the  house  and 
made  tea  for  him.  I  left  the  room  for  a  moment 
—  I  had  taken  him  into  the  kitchen  where,  dur- 
ing the  incumbency  of  the  regular  cook  I  hardly 
dare  venture  myself,  and  he  made  himself  com- 
fortable quite  near  the  range.  The  pies  on  which 
I  had  been  engaged  all  morning  lay  cooling  near 
him.  I  had  composed  twenty-nine  pies,  —  I  am 
an  excellent  mathematician,  and  I  could  not 
have  been  mistaken  in  the  count.  What  was 
my  amazement  to  find,  after  his  lordship's  depar- 
ture, that  one  pie  was  missing!  The  pan  in  which 
it  was  baked  I  discerned  later,  jammed  into  a 
barrel  of  excellent  Minnesota  flour.  My  absence 
from  the  room  was  the  briefest;  his  lordship  must 
indeed  be  a  prestidigitateur  to  have  made  way 
with  the  pie  so  expeditiously." 

"His  lordship  was  doubtless  hungry,"  I  sug- 
gested. "Even  nobility  must  eat.  I  passed 
Lord  Arrowood  in  the  highway  early  this  morn- 
ing, sitting  upon  a  stone,  with  sundry  items  of 
hand-baggage  reposing  beside  him.  I  have  rarely 
seen  any  one  so  depressed." 

226 


THE  RIDDLE  OF  THE  SIBYL'S  LEAVES 

"He  belongs  to  an  ancient  house,"  remarked 
Miss  Octavia.  "He  is  descended  from  either 
Hengist  or  Horsa,  —  I  forget  which,  but  it  does 
not  greatly  matter.  The  missing  pie,  I  may  add, 
was  an  effect  in  Westchester  pippin;  and  as  our 
American  experiment  in  self-government  bores 
him,  I  take  it  as  significant  that  he  chanced  upon 
food  that  is  the  veritable  sacrament  of  democ- 
racy." 

"Now  that  the  little  matter  of  the  servants 
has  been  adjusted,  we  must  have  a  care  lest  the 
newly-arrived  phalanx,  which  Providence  so 
kindly  sent  to  you  to-day,  is  not  stampeded  by 
any  further  manifestations  of  the  troubled  spirit 
of  the  unfortunate  Briton  who  was  hanged  on 
the  site  of  this  house." 

"Mr.  Ames,"  replied  Miss  Octavia  impres- 
sively, "that  matter  is  entirely  in  your  hands." 

"But  if  I  could  see  the  plans  of  this  house,  I 
should  be  better  able  to  grapple  with  his  ghost- 
ship." 

I  had  thrown  this  out  in  the  hope  of  eliciting 
some  remark  from  her  touching  the  Swedish 
maid's  visit  to  Pepperton's  office;  but  Miss 
Octavia  met  my  gaze  unflinchingly. 

'You  are  a  clever  man,  Mr.  Ames,  and  I  have 
every  confidence  that  you  will  not  only  solve  the 
mystery  of  the  library  chimney  but  find  the 

227 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

ghost  that  switched  off  the  lights  on  the  stair 
last  night.  I  prefer  that  you  should  accomplish 
these  feats  without  any  help  from  the  plans.  I 
myself  have  no  suggestions.  I  am  gratified  that 
you  are  meeting  the  emergencies  that  have  risen 
here  with  so  much  determination,  but  it  is  what 
I  should  expect  of  the  son  of  Arnold  Ames  of 
Hartford.  Opportunity  is  all  that  any  of  us 
need  to  find  ourselves  truly  great,  and  if,  in  the 
ordinary  course  of  our  lives,  the  gate  does  not 
open  freely,  we  are  justified  in  picking  the  lock. 
When  I  determined  to  seek  adventures  in  my  old 
age,  I  resolved  that  I  should  miss  no  chance,  and 
that  I  should  be  prepared  for  any  beckoning  of 
the  hand  of  fate.  An  odd  fancy  struck  me  at  the 
beginning  of  my  new  life  that  Boston  would  some 
day  be  the  starting-point  of  some  interesting 
experience.  This  has  not  yet  developed,  but  in 
order  that  I  may  be  prepared  for  anything  that 
may  occur  I  keep  a  blue  -silk  umbrella  constantly 
checked  at  the  Parker  House.  The  presence  of 
the  little  brass  check  in  my  purse  is  a  constant 
reminder  that  Boston  may  one  day  call  me." 

A  discussion  of  the  Parker  House  umbrella 
followed,  Cecilia  and  I  joining,  and  it  proved  so 
fruitful  a  topic  that  it  carried  us  to  our  coffee. 

Coffee-making,  in  a  machine  she  had  herself 
contrived,  was  always  attended  with  rites  that 

228 


THE  RIDDLE  OF  THE  SIBYL'S  LEAVES 

required  deliberation,  and  while  she  performed 
them  Miss  Hollister  continued  to  amuse  us. 

;'You  may  not  know,"  she  remarked,  in  one 
of  her  charming  irrelevant  outbursts,  "that  the 
most  important  furniture  transactions  effected 
in  this  country  are  those  negotiated  daily  by  the 
head-waiters  of  the  Fifth  Avenue  restaurants. 
Such  is,  I  assure  you,  the  fact.  These  gentlemen, 
who  have  attained  front  rank  among  our  preda- 
tory rich,  allow  no  one  to  dine  at  the  inns  they 
dominate  who  does  not  first  purchase  a  table  and 
chairs  at  a  profit  of  at  least  two  hundred  per  cent 
over  the  original  Grand  Rapids  cost,  the  furni- 
ture thus  purchased  reverting  in  every  case  to 
the  party  of  the  first  part  after  the  purchasers 
have  eaten  to  their  satisfaction.  The  Fifth  Ave- 
nue head-waiters  are  not  only  the  most  absolute 
autocrats  of  our  time,  but  the  most  acute  stu- 
dents of  human  nature  among  us.  The  sale  of 
the  tables  by  the  lords  of  the  dining-rooms  is 
alone  worth  a  fortune  every  season  at  our  fash- 
ionable victualing  houses  and,  in  addition,  the 
humbler  members  of  the  minor  orders  of  waiters, 
who  merely  fetch  and  carry,  are  obliged  to  share 
their  gratuities  with  their  august  chiefs." 

"The  system  is  iniquitous,"  I  declared.  "It's 
enough  to  pay  two  prices  for  the  food  without 
buying  the  hotel  furniture." 

229 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

"The  system,  Mr.  Ames,  is  wholly  admirable, 
if  you  will  pardon  me  for  expressing  a  difference 
of  opinion.  We  cannot  do  less  than  admire  the 
austere  genius  before  which  mere  plutocrats  and 
men  of  affairs  meekly  bow.  In  making  my  own 
investments  I  would  rather  have  the  advice  of 
Alphonse  at  the.  Hotel  Pallida  than  that  of  the 
president  of  the  strongest  trust  company  on 
Manhattan  Island.  The  varying  size  of  the 
sums  he  receives  for  the  dining-room  furniture  is 
the  best  possible  indication  of  the  condition  of 
the  market.  When  a  citizen  of  Pittsburg  will  pay 
no  more  than  one  hundred  dollars  for  the  use  of  a 
table  to  eat  from  at  the  Pallida  you  may  be  sure 
that  a  panic  impends.  By  the  way,  I  proposed  to 
Alphonse  last  winter  the  organization  of  a  lim- 
ited company  of  leading  head-waiters  to  control 
the  waiting  industry  of  Fifth  Avenue.  It  was 
my  idea  that  some  special  forms  of  torture 
might  be  devised  for  calculating  persons  — 
usually  readers  of  New  York  letters  in  provincial 
newspapers  —  who  think  a  waiter  entitled  to 
only  ten  per  cent  of  the  bill,  and  this  could  best 
be  managed  by  an  arrangement  between  the  five 
or  six  magnates  who  control  the  more  gilded  and 
imposing  refectories.  I  suggested  the  placing  of 
a  special  mark  in  the  hats  of  the  ten-per-cent 
fiends,  so  that  wherever  they  dine  the  symbol  of 

230 


THE  RIDDLE  OF  THE  SIBYL'S  LEAVES 

their  indiscreet  frugalities  would  be  apparent  to 
the  initiated  eye.  It  is  another  of  my  notions 
that  the  head-waiter  and  his  humble  slave  should 
present  a  formal  bill  for  their  services,  while  the 
hotel  or  restaurant  should  merely  be  tipped.  In 
this  way  the  more  important  service  would  re- 
ceive its  due  consideration.  The  sole  office  of  the 
proprietor  is  to  provide  the  head-waiter  a  place 
in  which  to  follow  his  profession.  Alphonse  is 
impressed  with  my  ideas,  and  has  even  offered 
to  make  me  a  director  of  the  company." 

"I  suppose  that  you  won  the  regard  of  Al- 
phonse, the  magnificent,  only  by  the  most 
princely  tips  through  many  years  of  acquain- 
tance, Miss  Hollister." 

"On  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Ames,  I  never  gave 
him  a  cent  in  my  life;  but  last  Christmas,  in 
recognition  of  his  friendliness  in  warning  me 
against  an  alligator-pear  salad,  at  a  moment 
when  that  vegetable  was  at  the  turn  of  the  sea- 
son, I  knit  him  a  pair  of  blue  worsted  bed-room 
slippers,  which  he  received  with  the  liveliest 
expressions  of  delight." 

Three  suitors  were  announced  at  this  moment, 
and  I  slipped  away  without  excuses,  while  Miss 
Octavia  and  Cecilia  adjourned  to  the  library. 

The  ghost,  I  had  sworn,  should  not  baffle  me 
another  night. 


XIII 

I   DISCOVER   TWO    GHOSTS 

As  I  crossed  the  second-floor  hall,  I  passed  the 
Swedish  maid,  walking  toward  Miss  Octavia's 
room.  I  was  somewhat  annoyed  to  find,  on  look- 
ing over  my  shoulder  to  make  sure  of  her  desti- 
nation, that  she,  too,  had  paused,  her  hand  on 
Miss  Octavia's  door,  and  was  watching  me  with 
interest.  She  vanished  immediately;  but  to  throw 
her  off  the  track  I  went  to  my  own  room,  closed 
the  door  noisily,  and  then  came  out  quickly  and 
ran  up  to  the  third  floor. 

Bassford  Hollister's  mysterious  exit  had  lin- 
gered in  my  mind  as  the  most  curious  incident 
of  the  eventful  Friday  night.  Having  been  baf- 
fled in  my  effort  to  get  hold*of  the  architect's 
plans,  my  thought  now  was  to  await  in  the  upper 
part  of  the  house  a  repetition  of  the  various 
phenomena  that  had  so  puzzled  me.  By  the 
process  of  exclusion  I  had  eliminated  nearly 
every  plausible  theory,  but  if  the  ghost  mani- 
fested himself  with  any  sort  of  periodicity  (and 
the  hour  of  the  chimney's  queer  behavior  had 
been  nine)  I  was  now  prepared  to  meet  him  in 

232 


I  DISCOVER  Two  GHOSTS 


the  regions  he  had  chosen  for  his  exploits.  When 
it  is  remembered  that  I  had  always  been  most 
timorous,  not  at  all  anxious  to  shine  in  any 
heroic  performances,  it  will  be  understood  that 
the  atmosphere  of  Hopefield  Manor  was  exerting 
a  stimulating  effect  upon  my  courage.  Or,  more 
likely,  my  inherent  cowardice  had  been  brought 
into  subjection  by  my  curiosity. 

I  had  a  pretty  accurate  knowledge  by  this 
time  of  the  position  and  function  of  all  the  elec- 
tric switches  between  the  lower  hall  and  the 
fourth  floor,  but  I  tested  them  as  I  ascended, 
glancing  down  now  and  then  to  make  sure  I  was 
not  observed.  From  the  sound  of  voices  in  the 
library  I  judged  that  most  of  Cecilia's  suitors 
must  now  have  arrived,  and  so  much  the  better, 
I  argued;  for  with  Miss  Octavia  and  her  niece 
fully  occupied,  I  could  the  better  carry  on  my 
ghost-hunt  above  stairs. 

At  a  quarter  before  nine  I  switched  off  the 
lights  on  the  third  and  fourth  floors,  and  estab- 
lished myself  at  the  head  of  the  stairway,  and 
quite  near  the  trunk-room  door.  This  door  I  had 
opened,  as  I  fancied  that  if  Bassford  Hollister 
were  at  the  bottom  of  the  business,  he  would 
probably  wish  to  find  his  way  to  the  roof  again. 
So  far  as  I  was  able  to  manage  it,  the  stage  was 
in  readiness  for  the  entrance  of  the  goblin.  And 

233 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

I  may  record  my  impression,  that  as  we  wait  for 
a  visitation  of  this  sort,  it  is  with  a  degree  of  cre- 
dence in  things  supernatural,  to  which  we  would 
not  ordinarily  confess.  In  spite  of  ourselves  we 
expect  something  to  appear,  something  un- 
earthly, impalpable,  and  unresponsive  to  those 
tests  we  apply  to  the  known  and  understood. 

The  clock  below  struck  nine  upon  these  medi- 
tations, and  almost  upon  the  last  stroke  I  heard 
a  sound  that  set  my  nerves  tingling.  I  crouched 
in  the  dark  waiting.  Some  one  was  coming 
toward  me,  but  from  where?  The  bottom  of  a 
well  at  midnight  was  not  blacker  than  the  fourth 
floor,  but  the  switch  lay  ready  to  my  hand,  and 
my  pockets  were  stuffed  with  matches  of  the 
sort  that  light  anywhere.  The  stairways  were 
all  carpeted,  as  I  have  said,  and  yet  some  one 
was  ascending  bare  treads,  lightly,  and  with 
delays  that  suggested  a  furtive  purpose.  Mean- 
while, as  a  background  for  this  unreality,  mur- 
murs of  talk  and  occasional  laughter  rose  from 
the  library. 

This  concealed  stairway,  wherever  it  wTas, 
could  not  be  of  interminable  length,  and  I  had 
counted,  I  think,  fifteen  steps  of  that  strange 
ascent  when  it  ceased.  I  heard  a  fumbling  as  of 
some  one  seeking  a  latch,  and  suddenly  a  light 
current  of  air  swept  by  me,  but  its  clean  fresh 

234 


I  DISCOVER  Two  GHOSTS 


quality  was  not  in  itself  disturbing.  I  stooped 
and  struck  a  match  smartly  on  the  carpet  and  at 
the  same  time  clicked  the  switch.  I  should  say 
that  not  more  than  ten  seconds  passed  from  the 
moment  the  soft  rush  of  air  had  first  advertised 
the  opening  of  a  passage  near  me  until  the  hall 
was  flooded  with  the  glow  of  the  electric  lamps 
overhead.  My  match  had  also  performed  its 
office,  but  finding  the  electric  current  behaving 
itself  normally,  I  blew  it  out.  What  I  saw  now 
interested  me  immensely. 

In  the  solid  wall,  near  the  stair,  and  almost 
directly  opposite  the  trunk-room,  a  narrow  door 
had  swung  outward,  —  a  neat  contrivance,  so 
light  in  its  construction  that  it  still  swayed  on 
its  concealed  hinges  from  the  touch  of  the  hand 
that  had  released  it.  How  it  had  opened  or  what 
had  become  of  the  prowler  who  had  unlatched  it 
remained  to  be  discovered.  It  seemed  impossible 
that  whoever  or  whatever  had  climbed  the 
hidden  stairway  had  descended,  nor  had  I  been 
conscious  of  a  ghostly  passing  as  on  the  previous 
night.  I  had  only  my  senses  to  apply  to  this 
problem,  and  their  efficiency  was  minimized  for 
a  moment  by  fear. 

The  opening  in  the  wall  engaged  my  attention 
at  once,  and  I  was  steadied  by  the  thought  that 
here  was  a  practical  matter  susceptible  of  investi- 

235 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

gation.  I  stepped  within  the  door  and  lighted  a 
candle ;  and  just  as  the  wick  caught  fire,  click 
went  a  switch  somewhere,  and  out  went  the  hall 
lamps.  But  having,  so  to  speak,  put  my  foot  to 
the  mysterious  stair  I  would  not  turn  back,  and 
I  continued  on  down  the  steps. 

Great  was  my  astonishment  to  find  that  I  had 
apparently  stepped  from  a  new  into  an  old  house. 
The  stair  treads  were  worn  by  long  use,  the 
plaster  walls  that  inclosed  them  were  battered 
and  cracked,  and  I  seemed  to  have  plunged  from 
the  glory  of  Hopefield  into  some  dim  lost  passage 
of  a  domicile  of  another  era,  that  lay  within  or 
beneath  the  walls  of  the  Manor.  As  I  slowly 
descended,  holding  high  my  candle,  I  recalled, 
not  without  a  qualm,  the  story  of  the  British 
soldier  whom  tradition  or  superstition  linked  to 
the  site  of  Miss  Hollister's  property.  This  stair- 
way might  certainly  have  been  built  in  the  early 
days  of  the  republic,  and  it  refuted  my  disdain  of 
the  ghost-myth  on  the  theory  that  new  houses 
are  inhospitable  to  spirits. 

At  the  foot  of  the  stair  I  found  two  rooms,  one 
on  either  side  of  a  small  hall,  and  these,  also, 
were  clearly  part  of  an  old  house  that  seemed  to 
be  somehow  merged  into  the  Hollister  mansion. 
I  remembered  now  that  the  mansion  stood 
wedged  against  a  rough  spur  of  rock,  and  that 

236 


I  DISCOVER  Two  GHOSTS 


the  front  and  rear  entrances  were  upon  different 
levels,  and  it  was  conceivable  that  the  back  part 
of  the  mansion  might  inclose  these  rooms  of  an 
earlier  house  that  had  occupied  the  same  site; 
why  they  should  have  been  retained  was  beyond 
me.  <j 

Through  the  carefully -preserved  windows, 
many-paned  and  quaint,  of  these  hidden  rooms, 
the  infolding  walls  of  the  new  house  were  blank 
and  black.  An  odd  thing  indeed,  that  Pepperton 
should  have  lent  himself  to  the  preservation  of  a 
commonplace  and  thoroughly  uninteresting  relic, 
for  beyond  doubt  he  must  have  countenanced 
it;  and  Miss  Hollister's  prompt  removal  of  the 
plans  from  the  architect's  office  became  more 
enigmatical  than  ever. 

One  door  only  remained  in  this  shell  of  the 
old  house,  and  I  hastened  to  fling  it  open,  still 
lighting  my  way  with  a  candle.  Before  me 
lay  the  coal  cellar,  at  which  I  had  merely 
glanced  on  the  morning  after  my  installation  at 
Hopefield.  I  now  began  to  get  my  bearings.  I 
remembered  two  iron  lids  in  the  cemented  sur- 
face of  an  area  on  the  east  side  of  the  house 
where  fuel  was  deposited,  and  mounting  a  few 
steps  that  were  of  recent  construction,  and  had 
evidently  been  built  to  afford  communication 
between  the  remnant  of  the  old  house  and  the 

237 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

subterranean  portion  of  the  new,  I  found  to  my 
relief  and  satisfaction  beneath  one  of  these  open- 
ings a  short  ladder,  through  which  the  court 
might  be  reached.  Here,  then,  the  manner  of 
ghostly  ingress  was  illustrated  by  perfectly  plau- 
sible means.  The  lid  of  the  coal-hole  was  en- 
tirely withdrawn,  and  a  bar  of  moonlight  lay 
brightening  upon  a  pile  of  anthracite  at  the  foot 
of  the  ladder. 

The  ghost  I  believed  to  be  still  in  the  upper 
halls  of  the  house,  and  now  that  I  was  in  a  posi- 
tion to  watch  the  ladder  by  which  he  had  entered 
I  felt  confident  that  I  had  cut  off  his  retreat.  I 
was  surveying  the  cellar,  when  I  heard  faint 
sounds  in  a  new  direction.  Far  away  under  the 
house,  and  remote  from  the  secret  steps,  some 
one  was  moving  toward  me,  and  rapidly,  too ! 
The  ghost  that  I  believed  to  have  disappeared 
into  the  fourth-floor  hall  must  then  have  changed 
the  line  of  his  retreat  and  descended  by  o»e 
of  the  regular  stairways. 

I  blew  out  my  candle  and  stood  with  my  back 
to  the  wall  of  the  long  corridor  on  which  opened 
the  various  store-rooms,  the  heating  plant,  laun- 
dry and  other  accessories  of  the  modern  house. 
My  ghost  was  coming  in  haste,  —  a  haste  that 
did  not  harmonize  with  the  stately  tread  of  the 
spooks  of  popular  superstition.  A  slower  pace 

238 


I  DISCOVER  Two  GHOSTS 


and  I  should  doubtless  have  fled  before  him ; 
but  quick  light  steps  echoed  in  the  dark  corri- 
dor, and  I  gathered  courage  from  the  thought 
that  ghosts  create  echoes  no  more  than  they  cast 
shadows. 

As  the  steps  drew  nearer  I  prepared  myself  to 
spring  upon  him.  I  must  unconsciously  have 
taken  a  step,  for  he  paused  suddenly,  stood  still 
for  a  moment,  then  turned  and  scampered  back 
the  way  he  had  come.  After  him  I  went  as  fast 
as  I  could  run.  The  cement-paved  corridor  was 
four  or  five  feet  wide,  and  I  plunged  through  the 
dark  at  my  best  speed.  At  the  end  of  the  corridor 
I  was  pretty  certain  of  my  quarry,  and  I  made 
ready  to  grapple  with  him.  Then  as  I  plunged 
into  the  wall  my  hands  touched  a  man's  face 
and  for  a  moment  clutched  the  collar  of  his  coat. 
He  had  been  waiting  for  me  to  strike  the  wall,  and 
as  he  slipped  out  of  my  grasp  he  ran  back  toward 
the  coal  cellar.  1  had  struck  the  wall  with  a  force 
that  knocked  the  wind  out  of  me,  but  I  got  my- 
self together  with  the  loss  of  only  an  instant  and 
renewed  pursuit.  I  had  no  fear  but  that,  if  he  at- 
tempted to  reach  the  open  by  means  of  the  coal- 
hole, I  should  catch  him  on  the  ladder,  and  I 
sprinted  for  all  I  was  worth  to  make  sure  of  him. 

My  fleeting  grasp  of  the  man's  collar  and  the 
agility  with  which  he  had  slipped  from  my  clasp 

239 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

had  settled  the  ghost  question,  and  I  had  now 
resolved  the  intruder  into  a  common  thief.  As 
we  neared  the  coal  cellar  I  increased  my  pace, 
and  felt  myself  gaining  on  him;  though  in  the 
dark  I  saw  nothing  until  I  glimpsed  the  faint 
light  from  the  coal-hole. 

It  had  evidently  occurred  to  him  by  this  time 
that  if  he  tried  to  climb  the  ladder  I  could  easily 
pull  him  down  by  the  legs;  and  when  he  reached 
the  cross  hall,  he  turned  quickly  and  dived 
through  the  opening  into  the  hidden  chambers. 
I  lost  no  time  in  following,  but  the  fellow  put  up 
a  good  race,  and  as  I  reached  the  old  stairway  he 
was  mounting  it  two  steps  at  a  time,  as  I  judged 
from  the  sound.  I  had  hoped  to  catch  and  dis- 
pose of  him  without  alarming  the  house,  but  it 
seemed  inevitable  now  that  the  chase  would  end 
in  such  fashion  as  to  arouse  the  company  assem- 
bled in  the  library. 

I  heard  him  stumble  and  fall  headlong  at  the 
door  above ;  then  he  shot  off  into  the  still 
darkened  hall,  and  when  I  had  gained  the  top  I 
lost  track  of  him  for  a  moment.  I  paused  and 
was  about  to  strike  a  match,  when  he  resumed 
his  flight,  and  I  was  forced  to  grapple  with  the 
fact  that  some  one  else  was  pursuing  him.  I  held 
my  match  unstruck  upon  this  new  disclosure, 
and  stepped  back  within  the  concealed  door  and 

240 


I  DISCOVER  Two  GHOSTS 


waited.  Up  and  down  the  hall,  two  persons  were 
running,  and  when  they  reached  the  ends  of 
the  corridor  I  heard  hands  touch  the  wall  and  the 
sound  of  dodging,  and  then  almost  instantly 
the  two  runners  flashed  by  me  again.  The  hall 
was  so  dark  that  I  saw  nothing,  but  as  the  run- 
ners passed  the  door  I  felt  the  rush  of  air  caused 
by  their  flight. 

Three  or  four  times  this  had  happened,  and 
then,  still  without  having  made  a  light,  I  thrust 
out  my  foot  at  the  next  return  of  the  unseen 
runners.  Some  one  tripped  and  fell  headlong,  and 
I  promptly  flung  myself  upon  him. 

My  prisoner's  resistance  engaged  my  best  at- 
tention a  moment,  but  when  I  had  sat  upon  his 
legs  and  got  hold  of  his  struggling  hands,  some 
one  stole  softly  by  me.  My  prisoner,  too,  heard 
and  was  attentive.  Not  only  did  I  experience  the 
same  sensation  as  on  the  previous  night,  of  a 
passing  near  by,  but  I  was  conscious  of  the  same 
faint  perfume,  as  of  a  flower-scent  half -caught  in 
a  garden  at  night,  that  had  added  to  my  mys- 
tification before.  Then  without  the  slightest 
warning  the  lights  flashed  on,  and  a  door  closed 
somewhere,  but  it  was  not  the  hidden  one  lead- 
ing down  into  the  remnant  of  the  old  house,  for 
my  prisoner's  head  and  shoulders  lay  across  its 
threshold.  He  sighed  deeply,  bringing  my  dazed 

241 


THE  SIEGE  OP  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

wits  back  to  him,  and  I  found  myself  gazing  into 
the  blinking  eyes  of  Lord  Arrowood. 

"Bounders,  I  say,  bounders!"  he  gasped. 

"In  the  circumstances,  Lord  Arrowood,  I 
should  not  call  names.  Will  you  tell  me  what  you 
mean  by  running  through  this  house  in  this 
fashion?  Stand  up  and  give  an  account  of  your- 
self." 

I  helped  him  to  his  feet  and  bent  over  the 
stair-rail  leading  down  to  the  third  floor.  Evi- 
dently our  strange  transactions  beneath  and 
above  had  not  disturbed  the  assembled  suitors 
and  their  hostesses ;  but  in  common  decency 
Lord  Arrowood  must  be  disposed  of  promptly ; 
there  was  no  doubt  about  that. 

"I  was  an  ass  to  try  it,"  muttered  his  lordship, 
pulling  his  tie  into  shape.  "And  now  I  want  to 
get  out.  I  want  to  go  away  from  here." 

He  was  tugging  at  the  belt  of  his  Norfolk  coat, 
and  something  between  it  and  his  waistcoat  evi- 
dently gave  him  concern.  It  did  not  seem  pos- 
sible that  he  was  really  a  thief,  with  chattels 
concealed  on  his  person,  but  he  continued  to 
smooth  his  jacket  anxiously,  meanwhile  eyeing 
me  apprehensively.  He  puffed  hard  from  his 
recent  game  of  hide-and-seek,  and  his  face  was 
wet  with  perspiration.  Our  conversation  was  car- 
ried on  in  half -whispers.  He  was  so  crestfallen 


I  DISCOVER  Two  GHOSTS 


that  if  it  had  n't  been  for  the  necessity  of  main- 
taining silence  I  should  have  laughed  outright. 

"Out  with  it,  my  lord.  What  have  you  stuck 
in  your  coat?  " 

"They're  bounders,  all  the  rest  of  'em,"  he 
asserted  doggedly,  'but  I  believe  you  to  be  a 
gentleman." 

"I  thank  you,  Lord  Arrowood,  for  this  mark 
of  confidence;  but  you  have  led  me  a  hot  chase 
through  this  house,  and  it  is  clear  that  you  have 
something  tucked  under  your  coat  that  you  have 
seized  feloniously.  We're  standing  here  in  the 
light,  and  our  voices  may  at  any  moment  attract 
Miss  Hollister  and  the  others  in  the  library. 
Open  your  coat !  I  declare  that  even  if  you  have 
lifted  a  bit  of  the  Hollister  plate  I  will  let  you  go. 
My  lord,  if  you  please,  stand  and  unfold  your- 
self!" 

Reluctantly,  shamefacedly,  and  still  breathing 
hard  from  his  late  exertions,  Lord  Arrowood  of 
Arrowood,  Hants,  England,  obeyed  me.  There 
were  five  buttons  to  the  close-fitting  jacket,  and 
the  loosening  of  every  succeeding  one  seemed  to 
give  him  pain.  Then  with  his  head  slightly  lifted 
as  though  in  disdain  of  me,  he  held  out  for  my 
observation  a  pie,  in  the  pan  in  which  it  had  been 
baked!  The  top  crust  was  browned  to  a  nicety; 
its  edges  were  crimped  neatly;  and  in  spite  of  the 

243 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

fact  that  I  had  so  lately  dined  sumptuously  at 
Miss  Hollister's  hospitable  board,  at  sight  of  this 
alluring  pastry  I  experienced  the  sharp  twinges 
of  aroused  appetite. 


"Now  you  have  it,  and  I  hope  you  are  satis- 
fied," said  Lord  Arrowood.  "Kindly  allow  me 
to  retire  by  the  way  I  came." 

"First,"  I  replied,  sobered  by  the  gravity  of 
244 


I  DISCOVER  Two  GHOSTS 


his  manner,  "it  would  interest  me  as  a  student 
of  character  to  know  just  what  species  of  pie 
lured  you  to  this  burglarious  deed." 

"I  have  reason  to  think,"  he  answered,  with 
tears  in  his  eyes,  "that  it  is  a  gooseberry.  I  was 
damned  hungry,  if  you  must  know  the  truth, 
and  having  sampled  the  old  lady's  pies  this 
morning,  and  had  nothing  to  eat  since,  I  saw  the 
coal-hole  open  and  ladder  beneath,  and  the  rest 
of  it  was  easy.  If  you  and  the  other  chap  had  n't 
chased  me  all  over  the  estate,  I  'd  have  been  off 
with  my  pie  and  no  harm  done.  The  old  lady  's 
insane,  you  know,  and  has  no  manner  of  use  for 
pies.  The  house  is  haunted  in  the  bargain.  When 
you  had  about  winded  me  down  in  the  cellar  and 
cut  me  off  from  the  ladder  and  chased  me  up 
here,  the  ghost  took  a  hand,  and  if  you  had  n't 
tripped  me  and  sat  on  me  the  spirits  would 
certainly  have  nailed  me.  O  Lord,  what  a 
night!" 

"It's  your  impression  then  that  when  you 
got  up  here  somebody  else  broke  into  the 
game." 

"Quite  that,  only  I  should  say  something,  not 
somebody.  It  was  a  lighter  step  than  yours.  It 
had  its  hand  on  me  once;  but  I  could  n't  touch 
it.  Damn  me,"  he  concluded  hoarsely, "  it  was  n't 
there  to  touch!" 

245 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

"You  are  sure  you  speak  the  truth  when  you 
say  that  the  coal-hole  was  open  and  that  you 
found  the  ladder  there  when  you  came?  " 

"No  manner  of  doubt  of  it.  As  I  have  already 
said,  I  believe  you  to  be  a  gentleman,  and  be- 
tween gentlemen  certain  confidences  may  pass 
that  would  n't  be  possible  between  a  gentleman 
and  those  canaille  down  there." 

He  jerked  his  head  scornfully  to  indicate  the 
suitors  below. 

I  bowed  with  such  dignity  as  is  possible  in 
addressing  a  nobleman  whom  you  have  just 
caught  in  the  act  of  lifting  a  gooseberry-pie  from 
a  lady's  pantry,  —  a  pie  which  you  hold  per- 
force in  your  hands. 

"The  fact  is  that  I  was  without  the  price  of 
food;  and  to  repeat,  I  was  beastly  hungry." 

"Poverty  and  hunger,  my  lord,  are  pardonable 
sins.  And  I  dare  say  that  Miss  Hollister  would 
be  highly  pleased  to  know  that  a  gentleman  of 
your  high  position  —  she  told  me  herself  that 
you  were  descended  from  the  Jutish  chiefs  — 
had  paid  so  high  a  compliment  to  the  excellence 
of  her  pastry.  Your  only  error,  as  I  view  the 
matter,  lies  in  the  fact  that  you  have  laid  feloni- 
ous hands  upon  a  gooseberry-pie.  All  gooseberry 
pastries  are  sacred  to  Hezekiah.  My  impressions 
of  Hezekiah  are  the  pleasantest,  and  I  cannot 

246 


I  DISCOVER  Two  GHOSTS 


allow  you  to  intervene  between  her  and  the  pie  I 
hold  in  my  hands.  If  you  will  accompany  me 
below,  I  will  undertake  to  gain  access  to  the  pie 
vault,  return  this  pie  to  its  proper  place,  and 
hand  you,  at  the  foot  of  the  ladder,  an  apple-pie 
in  place  of  it.  I  dare  say  it  never  will  be  missed ; 
but  from  what  I  know  of  Hezekiah,  any  trifling 
with  her  appetite  would  be  a  crime  indictable  at 
common  law." 

His  lordship  seemed  reassured,  and  we  were 
about  to  descend  by  the  concealed  stair  when  he 
arrested  me. 

"Mr.  Ames,  you  are  a  gentleman,  arid  possess 
a  generous  heart.  We  understand  each  other 
perfectly.  And  as  I  have  every  reason  to  believe 
that  my  suit  is  hopeless,  I  ask  the  loan  of  five 
dollars  until  I  can  confer  with  my  friend  the 
British  consul  at  New  York.  I  shall  sail  at  once 
for  England." 

I  was  moved  to  pity  by  his  humility.  A  man 
who,  finding  himself  reduced  to  larceny  by  hun- 
ger, and  being  unable  to  win  the  woman  of  his 
choice,  meekly  yields  to  the  inevitable,  is  not 
a  fair  mark  for  contumely.  He  stepped  down 
before  me  into  the  dark  stairway,  and  I  closed 
the  door  after  me  and  followed  him. 

I  found  my  way  to  the  pie  pantry  without  dif- 
ficulty, returned  the  gooseberry -pie  to  its  proper 

247 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

shelf,  chose  an  apple-pie  and  gave  it,  with  a  five- 
dollar  note,  to  Lord  Arrowood. 

At  the  bottom  of  the  ladder  he  pressed  my 
hand  feelingly,  and  expressed  his  gratitude  in 
terms  that  would  have  touched  a  harder  heart 
than  mine. 

Then  having  closed  the  coal-hole  and  hidden 
the  ladder  under  a  pile  of  wood,  I  resumed  my 
pursuit  of  the  ghost. 


XIV 

LADY'S  SLIPPER 

I  LIGHTED  my  way  with  a  candle  through  the 
lost  chambers  of  the  old  house,  up  the  hidden 
stairway,  and  out  into  the  fourth-floor  hall  again. 
The  old  stair,  I  found  on  closer  observation, 
reached  only  from  the  second  to  the  fourth  floor, 
and  below  this  had  been  pieced  with  lumber 
carefully  preserved  from  the  earlier  house.  There 
was  nothing  so  strange  after  all  about  the  hidden 
stairway,  though  I  was  convinced  that  this  had 
been  no  idea  of  Pepperton's,  but  that  he  had 
merely  obeyed  the  orders  of  his  eccentric  client, 
the  umbrella  and  dyspepsia-cure  millionaire. 

I  had  no  sooner  let  myself  through  the  secret 
door  into  the  upper  hall  than  I  was  aware  of  a 
disturbance  in  the  library  below.  I  heard  excla- 
mations from  the  men,  and  as  I  ran  down  toward 
the  third  floor  Miss  Octavia's  voice  rose  above 
the  tumult. 

"We  must  have  patience,  gentlemen.  Chim- 
neys are  subject  to  moods  just  like  human  be- 
ings ;  and  we  are  fortunate  in  having  in  the  house 
a  gentleman  who  is  an  expert  in  such  matters. 

249 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

I  do  not  doubt  that  Mr.  Ames  even  now  has  his 
hand  upon  the  chimney's  pulse,  and  that  he  will 
soon  solve  this  perplexing  problem." 

"If  you  wait  for  that  man  to  mend  your  chim- 
ney you  will  wait  until  doomsday." 

So  spake  John  Stewart  Dick,  taking  his  ven- 
geance of  me  with  my  client  and  hostess.  I  might 
have  forgiven  him ;  but  I  could  not  forgive  Hart- 
ley Wiggins. 

"He  does  n't  know  any  more  about  chimneys 
than  the  man  in  the  moon,"  my  old  friend  was 
saying,  between  coughs. 

And  then  quite  unmistakably  I  smelt  smoke, 
and  bending  further  over  the  rail  and  peering 
down  the  stair-well  I  saw  smoke  pouring  from 
the  library  into  the  hall.  It  seemed  to  be  in 
greater  volume  to-night  than  at  previous  mani- 
festations. A  gray -blue  cloud  was  filling  the  lower 
hall  and  rising  toward  me.  I  ran  quickly  to  the 
third  floor,  to  the  chamber  whose  fireplace  was 
served  by  the  library  chimney.  The  lights  in  the 
third-floor  hall  winked  out  as  I  opened  the  door, 
—  I  heard  a  step  behind  me  somewhere;  but  I  did 
not  trouble  about  this.  The  switch  inside  the 
unused  guest-chamber  responded  readily  to  my 
touch,  and  on  kneeling  by  the  hearth  I  found  it 
cold,  as  I  had  expected.  There  was  absolutely  no 
way  of  choking  the  library  flue  at  this  point,  for, 

250 


LADY'S  SLIPPER 


as  I  had  established  earlier,  all  the  fireplaces  in 
this  chimney  had  their  independent  flues.  Pep- 
perton  would  never  have  built  them  otherwise, 
and  no  one  but  a  skilled  mason  could  have  tapped 
the  library  flue  here  or  higher  up,  and  the  work 
could  not  have  been  done  without  much  noise 
and  labor. 

The  hall  outside  was  still  dark,  and  I  did  not 
try  the  switch.  The  pursuit  was  better  carried 
on  in  darkness,  and  I  had  by  this  time  become 
accustomed  to  rapid  locomotion  through  un- 
lighted  passages.  I  leaned  over  the  stair-well  and 
heard  exclamations  of  surprise  at  the  sudden 
cessation  of  the  smoke,  which  had  evidently 
abated  as  abruptly  as  it  had  begun.  The  win- 
dows and  doors  had  been  opened,  and  the  com- 
pany had  returned  to  the  library. 

"  Quite  extraordinary.  Really  quite  remark- 
able!" they  were  saying  below.  I  heard  Cecilia's 
light  laughter  as  the  odd  ways  of  the  chimney 
were  discussed.  And  as  I  stood  thus  peering 
down  and  listening,  the  Swedish  maid's  blonde 
head  appeared  below  me,  bending  over  the  well- 
rail  on  the  second  floor.  She  too  was  taking  note 
of  affairs  in  the  library,  and  as  I  watched  her  she 
lifted  her  head  and  her  eyes  met  mine.  Then, 
while  we  still  stared  at  each  other,  the  second- 
floor  lights  went  out  with  familiar  abruptness, 

251 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

and  as  I  craned  my  neck  to  peer  into  the  black- 
ness above  me  I  experienced  once  more  that 
ghostly  passing  as  of  some  light,  unearthly  thing 
across  my  face.  I  reached  for  it  wildly  with  my 
hands,  but  it  seemed  to  be  caught  away  from 
me;  and  then  as  I  fought  the  air  madly,  it 
brushed  my  cheek  again.  I  have  no  words  to 
describe  the  strange  effect  of  that  touch.  I  felt 
my  scalp  creep  and  cold  chills  ran  down  my 
spine.  It  seemingly  came  from  above,  and  it  was 
not  like  a  hand,  unless  a  hand  of  wonderful 
lightness!  Certainly  no  human  arm  could  reach 
down  the  stair-well  to  where  I  stood.  And  in 
that  touch  to-night  there  was  something  akin  to 
a  gentle,  lingering  caress  as  it  swept  slowly 
across  my  face  and  eyes. 

I  waited  for  its  recurrence  a  moment,  but  it 
came  no  more.  Then  on  a  sudden  prompting  I 
stole  swiftly  to  the  fourth  floor,  lighted  my 
candle,  and  gazed  about.  I  thought  it  well  to  let 
the  electric  light  alone,  for  my  ghost  had  once 
too  often  plunged  me  into  darkness  at  critical 
moments,  and  a  candle  in  my  hands  was  not  sub- 
ject to  his  trickery. 

The  hall  was  perfectly  quiet.  The  door  lead- 
ing down  the  hidden  stair  was  invisible,  and  I  had 
not  yet  learned  how  it  might  be  opened  from  the 
hall,  though  Mr.  Bassford  Hollister  had  un- 

252 


LADY'S  SLIPPER 


doubtedly  left  the  house  by  this  means  after  my 
interview  with  him  on  the  roof.  And  reminded 
of  the  roof,  I  opened  the  trunk-room  door  and 
peered  in.  The  candle-light  slowly  crept  into  its 
dark  corners,  and  looking  up  I  marked  the  pres- 
ence of  the  trap-door  secure  in  the  opening.  As 
I  stood  on  the  threshold  of  the  trunk-piled  room, 
my  hand  on  the  knob  and  the  candle  thrust  well 
before  me,  I  heard  a  slight  furtive  movement  to 
my  left  and  behind  the  door.  I  was  quite  satis- 
fied now  that  I  was  about  to  solve  some  of  the 
mysteries  of  the  night,  and  to  make  sure  I  was 
unobserved  —  for  having  gone  so  far  alone  I 
wanted  no  partners  in  my  investigations  — 
I  listened  to  the  murmur  of  talk  below  for  a 
moment,  then  cautiously  advanced  my  candle  fur- 
ther into  the  room.  I  was  not  yet  so  valiant,  even 
after  all  my  night-prowlings  and  explorations  of 
hidden  chambers,  but  that  I  thrust  the  light  in 
well  ahead  of  me  and  bent  my  wrist  so  that  the 
candle's  rays  might  dispel  the  last  shadow  that 
lurked  behind  the  door  before  I  suffered  my 
eyes  to  look  upon  the  goblin.  I  took  one  step  and 
then  cautiously  another,  until  the  whole  of  the 
trunk-room  was  well  within  range  of  my  vision. 
And  there,  seated  on  a  prodigious  trunk  fres- 
coed with  labels  of  a  dozen  foreign  inns,  I  beheld 
Hezekiah ! 

253 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

As  I  recall  it  she  was  very  much  at  her  ease. 
She  sat  on  one  foot  and  the  other  beat  the  trunk 
lightly.  She  was  bareheaded,  and  the  candle- 
light was  making  acquaintance  with  the  gold  in 
her  hair.  She  wore  her  white  sweater,  as  on  that 
day  in  the  orchard;  and  with  much  gravity,  as 
our  eyes  met,  she  thrust  a  hand  into  its  pocket 
and  drew  out  a  cracker.  I  was  not  half  so  sur- 
prised at  finding  her  there  as  I  was  at  her  man- 
ner now  that  she  was  caught.  She  seemed  neither 
distressed,  astonished  nor  afraid. 

"Well,  Miss  Hezekiah,"  I  said,  "I  half  sus- 
pected you  all  along." 

"Wise  Chimney-Man!  You  were  a  little  slow 
about  it  though." 

"I  was  indeed.  You  gave  me  a  run  for  my 
money." 

She  finished  her  cracker  at  the  third  bite, 
slapped  her  hands  together  to  free  them  of  pos- 
sible crumbs,  and  was  about  to  speak,  when  she 
jumped  lightly  from  the  trunk,  bent  her  head 
toward  the  door,  and  then  stepped  back  again 
and  faced  me  imperturbably. 

"And  now  that  you've  found  me,  Mr.  Chim- 
ney-Man, the  joke's  on  you  after  all." 

She  laid  her  hand  on  the  door  and  swung  it 
nearly  shut.  I  had  heard  what  she  had  heard : 
Miss  Octavia  was  coming  upstairs !  She  had 

254 


LADY'S  SLIPPER 


exchanged  a  few  words  with  the  Swedish  maid 
on  the  second-floor  landing,  and  Hezekiah's  quick 
ear  had  heard  her.  But  Hezekiah's  equanimity 
was  disconcerting :  even  with  her  aunt  close  at 


hand  she  showed  not  the  slightest  alarm.  She 
resumed  her  seat  on  the  trunk,  and  her  heel 
thumped  it  tranquilly. 

"The  joke's  on  you,  Mr.  Chimney-Man,  be- 
cause now  that  you  've  caught  me  playing  tricks 
you've  got  to  get  me  out  of  trouble." 

255 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

"What  if  I  don't?" 

"Oh,  nothing,"  she  answered  indifferently, 
looking  me  squarely  in  the  eye. 

"But  your  aunt  would  make  no  end  of  a  row; 
and  you  would  cause  your  sister  to  lose  out  with 
Miss  Octavia.  As  I  understand  it,  you  're  pledged 
to  keep  off  the  reservation.  It  was  part  of  the 
family  agreement." 

"But  I'm  here,  Chimney-pot,  so  what  are  you 
going  to  do  about  it  ?  " 

"Mr.  Ames!  If  you  are  ghost-hunting  in  this 
part  of  the  house" 

It  was  Miss  Octavia's  voice.  She  was  seeking 
me,  and  would  no  doubt  find  me.  The  sequestra- 
tion of  Hezekiah  became  now  an  urgent  and  deli- 
cate matter. 

"You  caught  me,"  said  Hezekiah,  calmly, 
"and  now  you've  got  to  get  me  out;  and  I  wish 
you  good  luck!  And  besides,  I  lost  one  of  my 
shoes  somewhere,  and  you've  got  to  find  that." 

In  proof  of  her  statement  she  submitted  a 
shoeless,  brown-stockinged  foot  for  my  observa- 
tion. 

"The  one  I  lost  was  like  this,"  and  Hezekiah 
thrust  forth  a  neat  tan  pump,  rather  the  worse 
for  wear.  "I  was  on  the  second  floor  a  bit  ago," 
she  began,  "and  lost  my  slipper." 

"In  what  mischief,  pray?" 
256 


LADY'S  SLIPPER 


"Mr.  Ames,"  called  Miss  Octavia,  her  voice 
close  at  hand. 

"I  wanted  to  see  something  in  Cecilia's  room; 
so  I  opened  her  door  and  walked  in,  that's  all," 
Hezekiah  replied. 

"Wicked  Hezekiah!  Coming  into  the  house  is 
bad  enough  in  all  the  circumstances.  Entering 
your  sister's  room  is  a  grievous  sin." 

"If,  Mr.  Ames,  you  are  still  seeking  an  expla- 
nation of  that  chimney's  behavior" 

It  was  Miss  Octavia,  now  just  outside  the 
door. 

"Don't  leave  that  trunk,  Hezekiah,"  I  whis- 
pered. "I'll  do  the  best  I  can." 

Miss  Octavia  met  me  smilingly  as  I  faced  her 
in  the  hall.  She  had  switched  on  the  lights,  and 
my  candle  burned  yellowly  in  the  white  electric 
glow. 

Miss  Octavia  held  something  in  her  hand.  It 
required  no  second  glance  to  tell  me  that  she  had 
found  Hezekiah's  slipper. 

"Mr.  Ames,"  she  began,  "as  you  have  ab- 
sented yourself  from  the  library  all  evening,  I 
assume  that  you  have  been  busy  studying  my 
chimneys  and  seeking  for  the  ghost  of  that  Brit- 
ish soldier  who  was  so  wantonly  slain  upon  the 
site  of  this  house." 

"I  am  glad  to  say  that  not  only  is  your  sur- 
257 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

mise  correct,  Miss  Hollister,  but  that  I  have 
made  great  progress  in  both  directions." 

"Do  you  mean  to  say  that  you  have  really 
found  traces  of  the  ghost?" 

"Not  only  that,  Miss  Hollister,  but  I  have  met 
the  ghost  face  to  face,  —  even  more,  I  have  had 
speech  with  him!" 

Her  face  brightened,  her  eyes  flashed.  It  was 
plain  that  she  was  immensely  pleased. 

"And  are  you  able  to  say,  from  your  encoun- 
ter, that  he  is  in  fact  a  British  subject,  uneasily 
haunting  this  house  in  America  long  after  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  and  Washington's 
Farewell  Address  have  passed  into  literature?" 

;'You  have  never  spoken  a  truer  word,  Miss 
Hollister.  The  ghost  with  whom  or  which  I  have 
had  speech  is  still  a  loyal  subject  of  the  King  of 
England.  But  by  means  which  I  am  not  at  lib- 
erty to  disclose,  I  have  persuaded  him  not  to 
visit  this  house  again." 

"Then,"  said  Miss  Hollister,  "I  cannot  do 
less  than  express  my  gratitude;  though  I  regret 
that  you  did  not  first  allow  me  to  meet  him. 
Still,  I  dare  say  that  we  shall  find  his  bones 
buried  somewhere  beneath  my  foundations. 
Please  assure  me  that  such  is  your  expectation." 

She  was  leading  me  into  deep  water,  but  I  had 
skirted  the  coasts  of  truth  so  far;  and  with  Heze- 

258 


LADY'S  SLIPPER 


kiah  on  my  hands  I  felt  that  it  was  necessary  to 
satisfy  Miss  Hollister  in  every  particular. 

"To-morrow,  Miss  Hollister,  I  shall  take 
pleasure  in  showing  you  certain  hidden  chambers 
in  this  house  which  I  venture  to  say  will  afford 
you  great  pleasure.  I  have  to-night  discovered 
a  link  between  the  mansion  as  you  know  it  and 
an  earlier  house  whose  timbers  may  indeed  hide 
the  bones  of  that  British  soldier." 

"And  as  for  the  chimney?" 

"And  as  for  the  chimney,  I  give  you  my  word 
as  a  professional  man  that  it  will  never  annoy 
you  again,  and  I  therefore  beg  that  you  dismiss 
the  subject  from  your  mind." 

I  saw  that  she  was  about  to  recur  to  the  shoe 
she  held  in  her  hand  and  at  which  she  glanced 
frequently  with  a  quizzical  expression.  This, 
clearly,  was  an  issue  that  must  be  met  promptly, 
and  I  knew  of  no  better  way  than  by  lying. 
Hezekiah  herself  had  plainly  stated,  on  the 
morning  of  that  long,  eventful  day,  when  she 
walked  into  the  breakfast-room  in  her  aunt's 
absence  and  explained  Cecilia's  trip  to  town, 
that  it  was  perfectly  fair  to  dissimulate  in  mak- 
ing explanations  to  Miss  Hollister;  that,  in  fact, 
Miss  Octavia  enjoyed  nothing  better  than  the 
injection  of  fiction  into  the  affairs  of  the  matter- 
of-fact  day.  Here,  then,  was  my  opportunity. 

259 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

Hezekiah  had  thrown  the  responsibility  of  con- 
triving her  safe  exit  upon  my  hands.  No  doubt, 
while  I  held  the  door  against  her  aunt,  that  re- 
markable young  woman  was  coolly  sitting  on  the 
trunk  within,  eating  another  cracker  and  await- 
ing my  experiments  in  the  gentle  art  of  lying. 

"Miss  Hollister,"  I  began  boldly,  "the  slipper 
you  hold  in  your  hand  belongs  to  me,  and  if 
you  have  no  immediate  use  for  it  I  beg  that  you 
allow  me  to  relieve  you  of  it." 

"It  is  yours,  Mr.  Ames?" 

A  lifting  of  the  brows,  a  widening  of  the  eyes, 
denoted  Miss  Octavia's  polite  surprise. 

"Beyond  any  question  it  is  my  property,"  I 
asserted. 

"Your  words  interest  me  greatly,  Mr.  Ames. 
As  you  know,  the  grim  hard  life  of  the  twentieth 
century  palls  upon  me,  and  I  am  deeply  inter- 
ested in  everything  that  pertains  to  adventure 
and  romance.  Tell  me  more,  if  you  are  free  to  do 
so,  of  this  slipper  which  I  now  return  to  you." 

I  received  Hezekiah's  worn  little  pump  into 
my  hands  as  though  it  were  an  object  of  high 
consecration,  and  with  a  gravity  which  I  hope 
matched  Miss  Octavia's  own.  I  was,  I  think,  by 
this  time  completely  hollisterized,  if  I  may  coin 
the  word. 

"As  I  am  nothing  if  not  frank,  Miss  Hollister, 
260 


LADY'S  SLIPPER 


I  will  confess  to  you  that  this  shoe  came  into  my 
possession  in  a  very  curious  way.  One  day  last 
spring  I  was  in  Boston,  having  been  called  there 
on  professional  business.  In  the  evening,  I  left 
my  hotel  for  a  walk,  crossed  the  Common,  took  a 
turn  through  the  Public  Garden,  where  many 
devoted  lovers  adorned  the  benches,  and  then 
strolled  aimlessly  along  Beacon  Street." 

"I  know  that  historic  thoroughfare  well,"  in- 
terrupted Miss  Hollister,  "as  my  friend  Miss 
Prudence  Biddeford  has  lived  there  for  half  a 
century,  and  once,  while  I  was  staying  in  her 
house,  she  gave  me  her  recipe  for  Boston  brown 
bread,  thereby  placing  me  greatly  in  her  debt." 

"Then,  being  acquainted  with  the  neighbor- 
hood and  its  sublimated  social  atmosphere,  you 
will  be  interested  in  the  experience  I  am  about  to 
describe,"  I  continued,  reassured  by  Miss  Octa- 
via's  sympathetic  attention  to  my  recital.  "I 
was  passing  a  house  which  I  have  not  since  been 
able  to  identify  exactly,  though  I  have  several 
times  revisited  Boston  in  the  hope  of  doing  so, 
when  suddenly  and  without  any  warning  what- 
ever this  slipper  dropped  at  my  feet.  All  the 
houses  in  the  neighborhood  seemed  deserted, 
with  windows  and  doors  tightly  boarded,  and 
my  closest  scrutiny  failed  to  discover  any  open- 
ing from  which  that  slipper  might  have  been 

261 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

flung.  The  region  is  so  decorous,  and  acts  of 
violence  are  so  foreign  to  its  dignity  and  repose, 
that  I  could  scarce  believe  that  I  held  that  bit  of 
tan  leather  in  my  hand.  Nor  did  its  unaccount- 
able precipitation  into  the  street  seem  the  act  of 
a  housemaid,  nor  could  I  believe  that  a  nursery 
governess  had  thus  sought  diversion  from  the 
roof  above.  I  hesitated  for  a  moment  not  know- 
ing how  to  meet  this  emergency;  then  I  boldly 
attacked  the  bell  of  the  house  from  which  I  be- 
lieved the  slipper  to  have  proceeded.  I  rang  until 
a  policeman,  whose  speech  was  fragrant  of  the 
Irish  coasts,  bade  me  desist,  informing  me  that 
the  family  had  only  the  previous  day  left  for  the 
shore.  The  house  he  assured  me  was  utterly 
vacant.  That,  Miss  Hollister,  is  all  there  is  of 
the  story.  But  ever  since  I  have  carried  that 
slipper  with  me.  It  was  in  my  pocket  to-night  as 
I  traversed  the  upper  halls  of  your  house,  seeking 
the  ghost  of  that  British  soldier,  and  I  had  just 
discovered  my  loss  when  I  heard  you  calling.  In 
returning  it  you  have  conferred  upon  me  the 
greatest  imaginable  favor.  I  have  faith  that 
sometime,  somewhere,  I  shall  find  the  owner  of 
that  slipper.  Would  you  not  infer,  from  its  di- 
minutive size,  and  the  fine,  suggestive  delicacy 
of  its  outlines  that  the  owner  is  a  person  of  aristo- 
cratic lineage  and  of  breeding?  I  will  confess  that 

262 


LADY'S  SLIPPER 


nothing  is  nearer  my  heart  than  the  hope  that 
one  day  I  shall  meet  the  young  lady  —  I  am  sure 
she  must  be  young  —  who  wore  that  slipper  and 
dropped  it  as  it  seemed  from  the  clouds,  at  my 
feet  there  in  sedate  Beacon  Street,  that  most 
solemn  of  residential  sanctuaries." 

"Mr.  Ames,"  began  Miss  Hollister  instantly, 
with  an  assumed  severity  that  her  smile  belied, 
"I  cannot  recall  that  my  niece  Hezekiah  ever 
visited  in  Beacon  Street;  yet  I  dare  say  that  if 
she  had  done  so  and  a  young  man  of  your  pleas- 
ing appearance  had  passed  beneath  her  window, 
one  of  her  slippers  might  very  easily  have  be- 
come detached  from  Hezekiah's  foot  and  fallen 
with  a  nice  calculation  directly  in  front  of  you. 
But  now,  Mr.  Ames,  will  you  kindly  carry  your 
candle  into  that  trunk-room?" 

And  I  had  been  pluming  myself  upon  the  com- 
pleteness of  my  hollisterization !  There  was 
nothing  for  me  but  to  obey,  and  my  heart  sank 
as  my  imagination  pictured  Hezekiah's  discom- 
fiture when  we  should  find  her  seated  on  the  huge 
trunk  behind  the  door.  And  that  stockinged 
foot  already  called  in  appealing  accents  to  the 
shoe  I  held  in  my  hand!  The  foundations  of  the 
world  shook  as  I  remembered  the  compact  by 
which  Hezekiah  was  excluded  from  the  house, 
and  realized  what  the  impending  discovery 

263 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

would  mean  to  Cecilia,  her  father,  and  the  way- 
ward Hezekiah,  too!  But  I  was  in  for  it.  Miss 
Octavia  indicated  by  an  imperious  nod  that  I 
was  to  precede  her  into  the  trunk-room,  and 
I  strode  before  her  with  my  candle  held  high. 

But  the  sprites  of  mystery  were  still  abroad  at 
Hopefield.  The  room  was  unoccupied  save  for 
the  trunks.  Hezekiah  had  vanished.  Instead  of 
sitting  there  to  await  the  coming  of  her  aunt,  she 
had  silently  departed,  without  leaving  a  trace. 
Miss  Hollister  glanced  up  at  the  trap -door  in  the 
ceiling,  and  so  did  I.  It  was  closed,  but  I  did  not 
doubt  that  Hezekiah  had  crawled  through  it  and 
taken  herself  to  the  roof.  Miss  Octavia  would 
probably  order  me  at  once  to  the  battlements; 
but  worse  was  to  come. 

"Mr.  Ames,"  she  said,  "will  you  kindly  lift 
the  lid  of  that  largest  trunk." 

I  had  not  thought  of  this,  and  I  shuddered  at 
the  possibilities. 

She  indicated  the  trunk  upon  which  Hezekiah 
had  sat  and  nibbled  her  cracker  not  more  than 
ten  minutes  before.  Could  it  be  possible  that 
when  I  lifted  the  cover  that  golden  head  would 
be  found  beneath?  My  life  has  known  no  blacker 
moment  than  that  in  which  I  flung  back  the  lid 
of  that  trunk.  I  averted  my  eyes  in  dread  of  the 
impending  disclosure  and  held  the  candle  close. 

264 


LADY'S  SLIPPER 


But  the  trunk  was  empty,  incredibly  empty! 
My  courage  rose  again,  and  I  glanced  at  Miss 
Octavia  triumphantly.  I  even  jerked  out  the 
trays  to  allay  any  lingering  suspicion.  Why  had 
I  ever  doubted  Hezekiah?  Who  was  she,  the 
golden-haired  daughter  of  kings,  to  be  caught  in 
a  trunk?  She  had  slipped  up  the  ladder  while  I 
talked  to  her  aunt  and  was  even  now  hiding  on 
the  roof;  but  it  was  not  for  me  to  make  so  trea- 
sonable a  suggestion.  Miss  Octavia  might  press 
the  matter  further  if  she  liked,  but  I  would  not 
help  her  to  trap  Hezekiah. 

Miss  Hollister  did  not,  to  my  surprise  and 
relief,  suggest  an  inspection  of  the  roof.  She 
nodded  her  head  gravely  and  passed  out  into  the 
hall. 

"  Mr.  Ames,  if  I  implied  a  moment  ago  that  I 
doubted  your  story  of  the  dropping  of  that  tan 
pump  from  a  Beacon  Street  roof  or  window,  I 
now  tender  you  my  sincerest  apologies." 

She  put  out  her  hand,  smiling  charmingly. 

"Pray  return  to  the  occupations  which  were 
engaging  you  when  I  interrupted  you.  You  have 
never  stood  higher  in  my  regard  than  at  this 
moment.  To-morrow  you  may  tell  me  all  you 
please  of  the  ghost  and  the  mysteries  of  this 
house,  and  I  dare  say  we  shall  find  the  bones 
of  that  British  soldier  somewhere  beneath  the 

265 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

foundations.  As  for  that  trifling  bit  of  leather 
you  hold  in  your  hand,  it 's  rather  passe  for  Bea- 
con Street.  The  next  time  you  tell  that  story  I 
suggest  that  you  play  your  game  of  drop  the 
slipper  from  a  window  in  Rittenhouse  Square, 
Philadelphia.  Still,  as  I  always  keep  an  um- 
brella in  the  check-room  of  the  Parker  House,  I 
would  not  have  you  imagine  that  I  look  upon 
Boston  as  an  unlikely  scene  for  romance.  The 
last  time  I  was  there  a  Mormon  missionary 
pressed  a  tract  upon  me  in  the  subway,  and  I 
can't  deny  that  I  found  it  immensely  interest- 
ing." 


XV 

LOSS   OF   THE   SILVER   NOTE-BOOK 

HEZEKIAH  on  the  roof  was  safe  for  a  time.  Miss 
Octavia's  gentle  rejection  of  my  Beacon  Street 
anecdote  and  her  intimation  that  Hezekiah  had 
been  an  unbilled  participant  in  the  comedy  of 
the  ghost  had  been  disquieting,  and  in  my  relief 
at  her  abandonment  of  the  search  I  loitered  on 
downstairs  with  my  hostess.  I  wished  to  impress 
her  with  the  idea  that  I  was  without  urgent  busi- 
ness. Hezekiah  would,  beyond  doubt,  amuse 
herself  after  her  own  fashion  on  the  roof  until  I 
was  ready  to  release  her.  As  I  had  quietly  locked 
the  trunk-room  door  and  carried  the  key  in  my 
pocket  I  was  reasonably  sure  of  this.  Humility  is 
best  acquired  through  tribulation,  and  as  Heze- 
kiah sat  among  the  chimney -crocks  nursing  one 
stockinged  foot  and  waiting  for  me  to  turn  up 
with  her  lost  slipper,  it  would  do  her  no  harm  to 
nibble  the  bitter  fruit  of  repentance  with  another 
biscuit.  I  should  find  her  much  less  sure  of  her- 
self when  I  saw  fit  to  seek  her  on  the  roof.  It 
was  a  pretty  comedy  we  were  playing,  but  it  was 
best  that  she  should  not  too  complacently  take 

267 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

all  the  curtains.  Hezekiah's  naughtiness  had 
been  diverting  up  to  a  point  now  reached  and 
passed,  but  the  time  had  arrived  for  remon- 
strance, admonition,  discipline.  And  it  should 
be  my  grateful  task  to  point  out  the  error  of  her 
ways  and  urge  her  into  safer  avenues  of  conduct. 
Such  were  my  reflections  as  I  attended  Miss 
Octavia  in  her  descent. 

The  memoranda  of  my  adventures  at  Hope- 
field  Manor  fall  under  two  general  headings. 
On  the  one  hand  was  the  ghost  and  the  library 
chimney;  on  the  other  the  extraordinary  gather- 
ing of  Cecilia's  suitors.  As  I  followed  at  Miss 
Octavia's  side,  she  seemed  to  have  dismissed  the 
ghost  and  the  fractious  chimney  from  her  mind; 
her  humor  changed  completely.  As  in  the  morn- 
ing when,  unaccountably  abandoning  her  habit- 
ual high-flown  speech,  she  had  asked  me  about 
Cecilia's  silver  note-book,  she  seemed  troubled; 
and  when  we  had  reached  the  second  floor  she 
paused  and  lost  herself  in  unwonted  preoccupa- 
tion. 

"Let  us  sit  here  a  moment,"  she  said,  indicat- 
ing a  long  davenport  in  the  broad  hall.  For  the 
first  time  her  manner  betrayed  weariness.  She 
laid  her  hand  quietly  on  my  arm  and  looked  at 
me  fixedly.  "Arnold,"  she  said,  —  "y°u  will 
let  me  call  you  Arnold,  won't  you?"  she  added 

268 


Loss  OF  THE  SILVER  NOTE-BOOK 

plaintively,  and  never  in  my  life  had  I  been  so 
touched  by  anything  so  sweet  and  gentle  and 
kind,  —  "Arnold,  if  an  old  woman  like  me  should 
do  a  very  foolish  thing  in  following  her  own 
whims  and  then  find  that  she  had  probably 
committed  herself  to  a  course  likely  to  cause 
unhappiness,  what  would  you  advise  her  to  do 
about  it?" 

"Miss  Hollister,"  I  answered,  "if  you  trusted 
Providence  this  morning  to  send  you  a  corps  of 
servants  when  yours  had  been  most  unfortu- 
nately scattered  by  ghosts  or  rumors  of  ghosts, 
why  will  you  not  continue  to  have  confidence 
that  your  affairs  will  always  be  directed  by  agen- 
cies equally  alert  and  beneficent?" 

She  flashed  upon  me  that  rare  wonderful  smile 
of  hers;  she  looked  me  in  the  eyes  quizzically  with 
her  head  bent  slightly  to  one  side;  but  for  once 
her  usual  readiness  seemed  to  have  forsaken  her. 
Could  it  be  possible  that  she  was  losing  faith  in 
her  own  play-world,  and  that  the  tuneful  trum- 
pets of  adventure  and  romance  which  she  had 
set  vibrating  on  her  own  key  jarred  dully  in  her 
ears?  It  passed  swiftly  through  my  mind  that  it 
was  incumbent  on  me  to  win  her  back  to  com- 
plete belief  in  the  potency  of  the  oracles  that  had 
called  to  her  old  age.  She  had  dipped  her  paddle 
into  bright  waters  and  had  splashed  up  all  man- 

269 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

ner  of  gay  imaginings,  and  what  disasters  awaited 
her  now  if  she  beached  her  argosy  and  found  no 
gold  at  the  end  of  the  rainbow!  It  occurred  to 
me,  prosaic  man  and  chimney -doctor  that  I  was, 
that  no  one  should  be  disappointed  who  has  heard 
the  dream-gods  calling  at  twilight,  or  wakened 
to  the  chanting  of  the  capstan-song,  or  heard  the 
timbers  creaking  in  the  stout  old  caravel  of  ro- 
mance as  it  wallows  in  the  seas  that  wash  the 
happy  isles.  I  had  not  crawled  through  so  many 
chimneys  but  that  I  still  believed  that  dreams 
come  true,  not  because  they  will  but  because  they 
must !  And  in  the  case  of  Miss  Octavia  Hollister 
I  felt  a  great  responsibility;  for  wrhat  irremedi- 
able loss  might  not  result  to  a  world  too  little 
given  these  days  to  dreaming,  if  she,  who  at  sixty 
had  turned  her  heart  trustfully  to  adventure, 
should  find  only  sorrow  and  disappointment?  The 
thing  must  not  be!  I  was  feeling  the  least  bit 
elated  over  my  success  in  solving  the  riddle  of  the 
ghost,  and  I  knew  that  the  hidden  chambers  and 
stair  would  delight  her  when  I  revealed  them  on 
the  morrow ;  so  I  quite  honestly  sought  to  restore 
her  to  the  joy  of  life.  I  felt  that  she  was  waiting 
for  me  to  speak  further,  and  I  plunged  ahead. 

"Our  meeting  in  the  Asolando  was  the  most 
interesting  thing  that  ever  happened  to  me, 
Miss  Hollister.  I  was  rapidly  becoming  hope- 

270 


Loss  OF  THE  SILVER  NOTE-BOOK 

lessly  cabined,  cribbed,  confined,  bound  in  to 
saucy  doubts  and  fears  as  to  the  promise  of  life 
held  out  to  us  in  the  nursery,  where,  indeed,  all 
education  should  begin  and  end.  Your  appear- 
ance at  the  Asolando  that  afternoon  was  well- 
timed  to  save  me  from  death  in  a  world  that  was 
rapidly  losing  for  me  all  its  illusion  and  witchery. 
But  now  that  you  have  so  readily  won  me  back 
to  the  true  faith,  I  beg  of  you  do  not  yourself 
revert  to  the  dreary  workaday  world  from  which 
you  rescued  me." 

I  had  never  in  my  life  spoken  more  sincerely. 
I  had  never  been  so  happy  as  since  I  knew  her, 
and  I  was  pleading  for  myself  as  well  as  for  her  — 
there  where,  from  her  own  doorstep  and  in  her 
own  garden,  one  who  listened  attentively  might 
hear  the  faint  roar  of  trains  bound  toward  the 
teeming  city  along  iron  highways.  It  was  with 
relief  that  I  saw  my  words  had  struck  home. 
She  touched  my  hand  lightly;  then  she  took  it 
in  both  her  own. 

"You  really  believe  that;  you  are  not  merely 
trying  to  please  me?" 

"I  was  never  half  so  much  in  earnest!  Please 
go  on  in  the  way  .you  have  begun.  And  have  no 
fear  that  the  charts  will  mislead  you,  or  that  the 
seas  will  grind  your  bark  on  hidden  shoals.  Ship- 
wreck, you  know,  is  one  of  the  greatest  joys  of 

271 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

our  adventures,  —  we  have  to  be  wrecked  first 
before  we  find  the  island  of  the  treasure-chests." 

She  sighed  softly,  but  I  felt  that  her  spirits 
were  rising. 

"But  those  men  down  there?  How  shall  I 
manage  that?"  she  asked  eagerly. 

I  snapped  my  fingers.  We  must  get  back  into 
the  air  again.  And  it  was  remarkable  how  read- 
ily my  long-untried  wings  bore  me  upward.  The 
earth,  after  all,  does  not  bind  us  so  fast! 

"I  don't  know  the  game;  but  I  have  found 
out  a  lot  of  things  without  being  told,  so  tell  me 
nothing!  Remember  that  I  have  something 
quite  remarkable,  startling  even,  to  show  you 
to-morrow.  I  have  even  overcome,  you  know, 
the  obstacle  you  placed  in  the  way  of  my  dis- 
coveries by  sending  in  ahead  of  me  this  morning 
for  the  plans  of  the  house." 

I  watched  her  narrowly,  but  she  was  in  no  wise 
discomfited. 

"Well,  I  burned  them  the  moment  Hilda 
brought  them  back,"  she  laughed.  "I  had  faith 
in  you,  and  I  wanted  you  to  manage  it  all  for 
yourself.  I  rather  guessed  that  you  would  go  to 
Pepperton.  That  was  when  I  still  believed." 

"But  you  must  go  on  believing.  Make-be- 
lieving is  the  main  cornerstone  and  the  keystone 
of  the  arch  of  the  happy  life." 

272 


Loss  OF  THE  SILVER  NOTE-BOOK 

"You  are  sure  you  are  not  mocking  a  foolish 
old  woman?" 

"You  are  the  wisest  woman  I  ever  knew!"  I 
asserted,  and  my  heart  was  in  the  words. 

"I  believe  you  have  persuaded  me;  but  Ce- 
cilia"- 

She  was  again  at  the  point  of  loosening  her 
hold  upon  the  cord  that  linked  her  shallop  to 
Ariel's  isle,  but  my  own  youth  was  resurgent 
in  me. 

I  rose  hastily,  the  better  to  break  the  current 
of  her  thought. 

"Those  men  down  there!  They  are  in  the 
hands  of  a  higher  fate  than  we  control.  I  don't 
know  the  game"  — 

"But  if  "—she  broke  in. 

"But  if  you  gave  away  the  secret,  explained  it 
to  me,  you  would  throw  me  back  into  my  dark- 
est chimney  to  hope  no  more.  Leave  it  to  me; 
trust  me;  lean  upon  me!  I  assure  you  that  all 
will  be  well." 

She  bent  her  head  and  yielded  herself  to  reverie 
for  a  moment.  Then  she  sprang  to  her  feet  in 
that  indescribably  light,  graceful  way  that 
erased  at  least  fifty  of  her  years  from  the  reckon- 
ing, and  was  herself  again. 

"Arnold  Ames,"  she  said,  laughing  a  little  but 
gazing  up  at  me  with  unmistakable  confidence 

273 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

and  liking  in  her  eyes,  "we  will  go  through  with 
this  to  the  end.  And  whether  that  slipper  really 
fell  at  your  feet  in  Beacon  Street  or  in  the  even 
less  likely  precincts  of  Rittenhouse  Square,  or 


under  the  windows  of  the  Spanish  Embassy  in 
Washington,  I  believe  that  you  are  my  good 
knight,  and  that  you  will  see  me  safely  through 
this  singular  adventure." 

274 


Loss  OF  THE  SILVER  NOTE-BOOK 

And  I,  Arnold  Ames,  but  lately  a  student  of 
chimneys,  bent  and  kissed  Miss  Octavia's  hand. 

She  led  the  way  to  the  library,  where  I  thought 
it  well  to  appear  for  a  moment,  and  I  was  heart- 
ily glad  that  I  did  so.  It  was  joy  enough  for  any 
man  that  he  should  have  earned  such  glances  of 
hatred  and  suspicion  as  the  suitors  bent  upon  me. 
There  they  were,  some  standing,  some  seated, 
about  Cecilia.  I  bowed  low  from  the  door,  feeling 
that  to  offer  my  hand  to  these  gentlemen  in  their 
present  temper  would  be  too  severe  a  strain  upon 
their  manners.  As  Miss  Octavia  appeared,  sev- 
eral of  them  advanced  courteously  and  engaged 
her  in  conversation.  She  found  a  seat  and  called 
the  others  to  her,  on  the  plea  that  she  wished  to 
ask  them  their  opinion  touching  some  matter,  — 
I  believe  it  was  a  late  rumor  that  Andree,  who 
had  gone  ballooning  to  discover  the  Hyperbo- 
reans, had  been  heard  of  somewhere. 

Cecilia  appeared  distrait,  and  I  wondered  what 
new  turn  her  affairs  had  taken.  She  rose  as  I 
crossed  the  room,  and  from  her  manner  I  judged 
that  she  welcomed  this  chance  of  addressing  me. 

''You  have  scorned  the  library  to-night.  Has 
there  been  trouble?  Is  Aunt  Octavia  alarmed 
about  anything?" 

I  was  sure  that  this  inquiry  covered  some  ul- 
terior question.  Hartley  Wiggins,  listening  with 

275 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

a  bored  air  to  Miss  Octavia's  discussion  of  An- 
dree's  fate,  glanced  in  our  direction  with  manifest 
displeasure  in  our  propinquity.  Cecilia  Hollister 
was  a  beautiful,  charming  woman  of  the  world, 
but  I  felt  her  spell  less  to-night.  It  may  be  that 
the  presence  of  Hezekiah's  slipper  in  my  inside 
coat-pocket,  pressing  rather  insistently  against 
my  ribs,  acted  as  a  counter-irritant.  I  certainly 
could  not  imagine  myself  possessed  of  one  of 
Cecilia's  slippers!  If  I  had  tried  my  fictitious 
Beacon  Street  episode  on  Cecilia,  she  would 
undoubtedly  have  expressed  her  scorn  of  me. 
The  hollisteritis  germ,  that  had  heretofore  in- 
fected me  only  intermittently,  was  now  exerting 
its  full  tonic  power.  In  trying  to  hold  Miss  Oc- 
tavia  to  her  covenants  with  the  lords  of  romance, 
I  had  strengthened  my  own  confidence  in  their 
bold  emprise.  The  gravity  with  which  the  suit- 
ors gave  heed  to  Miss  Octavia's  ideas  on  arctic 
ballooning  touched  my  humor.  Cecilia  had  but 
to  state  her  perplexity  and  I  would  interest  my- 
self promptly  in  her  business.  If  I  had  been 
asked  that  night  to  enlist  in  the  most  hopeless 
causes  I  should  have  done  so  without  a  quibble, 
and  died  cheerfully  under  any  barricade. 

Our  time  was  short;  at  any  moment  the  suit- 
ors might  cease  covertly  glaring  at  me,  drift 
away  from  Miss  Octavia,  and  interpose  them- 

276 


Loss  OF  THE  SILVER  NOTE-BOOK 

selves  between  me  and  the  girl  on  whom  they 
had  set  their  collective  hearts. 

"You  are  in  difficulty,  Miss  Cecilia,"  I  said; 
"please  tell  me  in  what  way  I  may  serve  you." 

"I  don't  know  why  I  should  appeal  to  you  "  — 

"No  reason  is  necessary.  I  have  told  you  be- 
fore that  you  need  only  to  command  me.  We 
may  be  interrupted  at  any  moment.  Pray  go 
on." 

"I  have  lost  an  article  of  the  greatest  value  to 
me.  It  has  been  taken  from  my  room." 

For  a  moment  only  I  read  distrust  and  sus- 
picion in  her  eyes  as  it  occurred  to  her  that  I  had 
access  to  every  part  of  the  house;  but  my  manner 
seemed  to  restore  her  confidence.  And  she  could 
not  have  forgotten  that  her  own  father  had  met 
her  secretly  on  the  roof  of  a  house  that  was 
denied  him,  and  that  I  was  perfectly  cognizant 
of  the  fact. 

"I  am  sure  you  can  be  of  assistance,"  she  said. 
"There's  something  behind  this  ghost-story; 
some  one  has  been  in  and  about  the  house;  you 
believe  that?" 

"Yes.  There  has  really  been  a  sort  of  ghost, 
you  know." 

She  shrugged  her  shoulders.  Cecilia  had  no 
patience  with  ghosts,  and  we  were  losing  time. 
My  conversation  with  Cecilia  was  annoying 

277 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

Wiggins,  as  was  plain  from  his  nervousness. 
Wiggins's  courtesy  was  unfailing,  but  there  are 
points  at  which  the  restraints  of  civilization  snap. 
Cecilia  realized  that  time  passed  and  that  she 
had  not  stated  her  difficulty.  She  now  lowered 
her  voice  and  spoke  with  great  earnestness. 

"I  went  to  my  room  for  a  moment,  while 
Aunt  Octavia  was  above,  with  you  I  suppose, 
just  after  the  chimney  gave  another  of  its 
strange  demonstrations.  I  remembered  that  I 
had  left  my  little  silver-bound  book,  that  I  usu- 
ally carry  with  me,  on  my  dressing-room  table. 
It  contains  a  memorandum  of  great  importance 
to  me.  It  positively  cannot  be  duplicated.  I  am 
sure  it  was  there  when  I  came  down  to  dinner. 
But  it  was  not  on  my  dressing-table  or  anywhere 
to  be  found." 

"You  may  be  mistaken  as  to  where  you  left  it. 
You  would  not  be  absolutely  positive  that  you 
left  it  on  the  dressing-table?" 

"There  is  not  the  slightest  question  about  it. 
I  had  been  looking  at  it  just  before  dinner.  I  had 
sent  you  a  note,  you  know,  immediately  after 
you  came  back,  and  hurried  down  to  see  you." 

:'Yes.  I  recall  that.  You  were  in  the  library 
when  I  came  down.  And  I  think  I  remember 
having  seen  the  little  trinket,  —  slightly  smaller 
than  a  card-case,  silver-backed  and  only  a  few 

278 


Loss  OF  THE  SILVER  NOTE-BOOK 

leaves.  You  had  it  in  your  hand  the  other  night 
when  I  came  in  after  Mr.  Hume  had  left." 

She  flushed  slightly  at  this,  but  readily  ac- 
quiesced in  my  description.  Miss  Octavia's 
inquiry  as  to  whether  I  had  seen  the  book  came 
back  to  me;  and  no  less  clearly  her  withdrawal 
of  her  question  almost  the  moment  she  -had 
spoken  it. 

I  felt  the  sudden  impingement  of  Hezekiah's 
slipper  upon  my  own  conscience,  if  I  may  so 
state  the  matter.  Hezekiah,  playing  ghost,  had 
confessed  to  me  that  she  had  visited  Cecilia's 
room.  Hezekiah,  amusing  herself  with  the  library 
chimney  and  frightening  the  servants  by  steal- 
ing into  the  forbidden  house  through  the  coal- 
hole, was  a  culprit  to  be  scolded  and  forgiven; 
but  what  of  Hezekiah  mischievously  filching 
an  article  of  real  value  to  her  sister !  I  did  not 
like  this  turn  of  affairs.  I  must  get  back  to  the 
roof,  find  Hezekiah,  and  compel  her  to  return 
the  silver  book.  Only  by  tactfully  managing  this 
could  I  serve  well  all  the  members  of  the  house 
of  Hollister.  But  first  I  must  leave  Cecilia  with 
a  tranquil  mind. 

"I  thank  you  for  confiding  this  matter  to  me, 
Miss  Hollister.  Please  do  not  attach  suspicion 
to  any  one  until  I  have  seen  you  again." 

"But  if  you  should  be  unable  to  restore"  — 
279 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

"I  assure  you  that  the  book  is  not  lost.  It  has 
been  mislaid,  that's  all.  I  shall  return  it  to  you 
at  breakfast.  I  give  you  my  word." 

"Do  you  really  mean  it?"  she  faltered. 
"Please  keep  this  from  Aunt  Octavia!  I  can't 
tell  you  how  important  it  is  that  she  be  kept  in 
ignorance  of  my  loss.  The  consequences,  if  she 
knew,  might  be  very  distressing." 

I  could  not  for  the  life  of  me  see  what  great 
importance  could  attach  to  those  few  leaves  of 
paper  in  their  silver  case,  but  if  Miss  Octavia  and 
Hezekiah  were  interested  in  it  as  well  as  Cecilia, 
it  must  have  a  significance  wholly  unrelated  to 
its  intrinsic  value.  It  is  the  way  of  professional 
detectives  to  suggest  impossible  theories  merely 
to  conceal  their  own  plans  and  intentions,  and  as 
I  had  reached  a  point  where  my  tongue  was 
astonishingly  glib  in  subterfuge  and  evasion,  I 
suggested  that  it  might  perhaps  have  been  one  of 
the  new  servants,  or  indeed  the  Swedish  maid. 

"We  will  look  into  the  matter,  Miss  Hollister. 
At  breakfast  I  shall  have  something  to  report. 
Meanwhile  silence  is  the  word!" 

Miss  Octavia  was  carrying  the  invincible  John 
Stewart  Dick  away  to  the  billiard-room.  He 
glared  at  me  murderously  as  he  trailed  glumly 
after  the  lady  of  the  manor.  The  others  were 
crowding  about  Cecilia  again,  and  I  yielded  to 

280 


Loss  OF  THE  SILVER  NOTE-BOOK 

them  willingly.  As  I  sauntered  toward  the  door 
Ormsby  detained  me  a  moment.  His  manner 
was  arrogant  and  he  hissed  rather  than  spoke. 

"I'm  directed  to  command  your  presence  at 
the  Prescott  Arms  to-morrow  at  twelve  o'clock. 
The  business  is  important." 

"I  regret,  my  dear  brother,  that  I  shall  be  un- 
able to  sit  with  you  at  that  hour  in  committee  of 
the  whole,  and  for  two  reasons.  The  first  is  that 
I  am  paired  with  Lord  Arrowood.  You  refused 
to  take  him  into  your  base  compact,  and  allowed 
him  to  be  thrown  out  of  the  inn  for  not  paying 
his  bill.  The  act  was  deficient  in  generosity  and 
gallantry." 

"Then  I  suppose  you  would  think  it  a  fine 
thing  for  such  a  pauper  to  marry  a  woman  like 
that,  —  like  that,  I  say?  "  and  he  jerked  his  head 
toward  Cecilia. 

"I  consider  a  lord  of  Arrowood  as  good  as  the 
proprietor  of  a  knitting-mill  any  day,  if  you  press 
me  for  an  opinion,"  I  replied  amiably. 

"And  this  from  a  chimney-sweep?  "  he  sneered. 

:<You  flatter  me,  my  dear  sir.  I've  renounced 
soot  and  become  a  gentleman  adventurer  merely 
to  prevent  a  type  that  long  illumined  popular 
fiction  from  becoming  extinct.  I  advise  you  to 
fill  the  void  existing  in  the  heavy- villain  class; 
believe  me,  your  talents  would  carry  you  far. 

281 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

Study  Dumas  and  forget  the  wool-market,  and 
you  will  lead  a  happier  life.  My  second  reason 
for  declining  to  meet  you  at  the  Arms  at  twelve 
to-morrow  is  merely  that  the  hour  is  inconven- 
ient. I  assume  that  you  mean  to  urge  luncheon 
upon  me,  and  I  never  eat  before  one.  My  doctor 
has  warned  me  to  avoid  early  luncheons  if  I 
would  preserve  my  figure,  of  which  you  may  well 
believe  me  justly  proud." 

"You're  a  coward,  that's  all  there  is  to  that. 
I  dare  you  to  come!" 

"Well,  as  I  think  of  it  I  'd  rather  be  dared  than 
invited.  If  I  find  it  quite  convenient  I  shall  drop 
in.  But  you  need  n't  keep  the  waffles  hot  for  me. 
Good  evening." 

It  did  not  seem  possible  that  I,  the  timid,  un- 
combative  and  unathletic,  had  thus  cavalierly 
addressed  a  dignified  gentleman  in  a  white  waist- 
coat who  was  perfectly  capable  of  knocking  me 
down  with  a  slap  in  the  face.  Valor,  I  aver,  is 
only  another  of  the  offsprings  of  necessity. 


XVI 

JACK   O'    LANTERN 

I  HURRIED  back  to  the  trunk-room  and  had  soon 
gained  the  roof.  The  moon  was  harassed  by  fly- 
ing clouds  that  obscured  it  fitfully,  and  a  keen 
wind  swept  the  hills.  I  crept  over  the  several 
levels  of  roof  thinking  that  any  moment  I  should 
come  upon  Hezekiah;  I  searched  a  second  time, 
peering  behind  chimney-pots,  and  into  dark 
angles;  but  to  my  disappointment  and  chagrin 
my  young  lady  of  the  single  slipper  was  nowhere 
in  sight.  I  found,  however,  lying  near  the  library 
chimney,  a  trunk-tray  that  required  no  explana- 
tion. With  this  Hezekiah  had  blocked  the  flue, 
and  I  smiled  as  I  pictured  her  tip-toeing  to  reach 
the  chimney-crock,  and  dropping  the  tray  across 
the  top.  How  gleefully  she  must  have  chuckled  as 
she  waited  for  the  flue  to  fill  and  send  the  smoke 
ebbing  back  into  the  library,  to  the  discomfiture 
of  her  aunt  and  sister  and  the  suitors  gathered 
about  the  hearth!  The  spirit  of  mischief  never 
whispered  into  a  prettier  ear  a  trick  better  cal- 
culated to  cause  confusion. 

I  had  thought  Hezekiah  secure  when  I  locked 
283 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

the  trunk-room  door,  but  I  had  not  counted  upon 
the  versatility  and  resourcefulness  of  that  young 
person.  I  dropped  to  the  second  roof-level  and 
inspected  the  down-spouts,  but  it  was  incredible 
that  she  had  sought  the  earth  by  this  means.  I 
swung  myself  to  a  third  level,  and  after  much 
groping  for  my  bearings,  decided  that  an  ath- 
letic girl  of  Hezekiah's  venturesome  disposition 
might,  if  she  set  no  great  store  by  her  neck, 
clamber  off  the  kitchen-roof  by  means  of  a  tall 
maple  whose  branches  now  raspingly  called  at- 
tention to  their  slight  contact  with  the  house. 
It  was  here  that  the  walls  of  Hopefield  thrust 
themselves  into  the  shoulder  of  a  rough  rocky 
knoll,  and  it  was  perfectly  clear  now  that  the 
chambers  of  the  earlier  house  around  which  the 
mansion  had  been  built  were  neatly  enfolded  by 
the  walls  on  the  east  side. 

As  the  moon  cruised  into  a  patch  of  clear  sky 
something  white  fluttered  from  a  maple  limb, 
and  I  bent  and  pulled  it  free.  I  took  counsel  of  a 
match  behind  the  kitchen  chimney,  and  found 
that  it  was  a  handkerchief  that  had  been  knotted 
to  the  tip  of  the  bough.  No  one  but  Hezekiah 
would  have  thought  of  marking  her  trail  in  this 
fashion.  I  held  it  to  my  face,  and  that  faint  per- 
fume that  had  been  a  mystifying  accompani- 
ment of  the  passing  of  the  mansion  ghost  became 

284 


JACK   O'LrANTERN 


nothing  more  unreal  than  the  orris  in  Hezekiah's 
handkerchief-case.  The  wind  whipped  the  bit 
of  linen  spitefully  in  my  hands.  I  reasoned  that 
if  Hezekiah  the  inexplicable  had  not  meant  for 
me  to  know  the  manner  of  her  exit  she  need  not 
have  left  this  plain  hint  behind;  but  the  swaying 
maple  bough  did  not  tempt  me.  I  hurried  back 
across  the  roof  to  secure  the  trunk-tray,  resolved 
to  dispose  of  it,  seek  the  open,  and  find  the  errant 
Hezekiah  if  she  still  lingered  in  the  neighborhood. 

I  looked  off  across  the  \vindy  landscape  before 
descending,  and  as  my  eyes  ranged  the  dark  I 
caught  the  glimmer  of  a  light,  as  of  a  lantern 
borne  in  the  hand,  in  the  meadow  beyond  the 
garden.  It  paused,  and  was  swung  back  and 
forth  by  its  unseen  bearer.  It  shed  a  curious 
yellow  light  and  not  the  white  flame  of  the  com- 
mon lantern;  and  now  it  rose  a  trifle  higher  and 
slowly  resolved  itself  into  a  weird  fantastic  face. 

Three  minutes  later  I  was  out  of  the  house, 
using  the  backstairs  to  avoid  the  company  in  the 
library,  and  had  crossed  the  garden  and  crawled 
through  the  hedge.  As  I  rose  to  my  feet  a  voice 
greeted  me  cheerfully, — 

"Well  done,  Chimney-Man!  You  were  a  little 
slow  hitting  the  trail,  but  you  do  pretty  well, 
considering.  How  did  you  manage  with  Aunt 
Octavia  about  that  slipper?  I  had  a  narrow 

285 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

escape  in  the  second-floor  hall,  when  I  came  out 
of  Cecilia's  room.  I  must  have  lowered  a  record 
getting  upstairs.  And  one  shoe  is  n't  a  bit  com- 
fortable. Allow  me  to  relieve  you ! " 

"Here's  your  slipper.  You  ought  to  be 
ashamed  of  yourself." 

"For  losing  my  slipper?  I  thought  Cinderella 
had  made  that  respectable." 

She  placed  her  hand  on  my  shoulder,  lifted 
her  foot,  and  drew  the  pump  on  with  a  single  tug. 

"Well,  what  did  Aunt  Octavia  say?" 

"Oh,  she  had  thoughts  too  dark  to  express. 
You  probably  heard  what  we  said.  It  was  she 
who  found  the  slipper!" 

Hezekiah  laughed.  The  wind  caught  up  that 
laugh  and  whisked  it  away  jealously. 

"She  found  it  and  carried  it  to  you,  Chimney- 
Man,  and  I  skipped  just  as  you  began  that  beau- 
tiful story  about  finding  it  in  Beacon  Street. 
Hurry  and  tell  me  how  you  got  me  out  of  it." 

"How  did  you  know  I  would  try  to  explain  it? 
You  did  a  perfectly  foolhardy  thing  in  roaming 
the  house  that  way,  scaring  Lord  Arrowood  nearly 
to  death,  to  say  nothing  of  me.  Why  should  I 
help  you?" 

"Oh,  you're  a  man  and  I  was  just  a  little  girl 
who  had  lost  her  slipper,"  she  replied.  "I  was 
sure  you  would  fix  it  up." 

286 


JACK  O'LANTERN 


"Well,  I  like  your  nerve,  Hezekiah!  I  had  to 
lie  horribly  to  explain  the  slipper,  and  Miss  Octa- 
via  did  n't  swallow  more  than  half  my  yarn." 

"Oh,  well,  if  it  was  a  good  story,  Aunt  Octavia 
would  n't  mind.  She'd  have  minded,  though,  if 
you  had  n't  tried  to  get  me  out  of  it.  That's  the 
way  with  Aunt  Octavia.  I  hope  you  made  a 
romantic  tale  of  it." 

"I  can't  say  that  it  would  place  me  among  the 
great  masters  of  fiction,  Hezekiah,  but  as  lies  go 
I  think  it  had  merit.  And  I  '11  improve  if  I  stay 
here  much  longer." 

"Oh,  you'll  stay  all  right.  Aunt  Octavia  has 
no  intention  of  letting  you  go.  When  she  left  the 
Asolando  that  afternoon  she  met  you,  she  had 
her  plans  all  made  for  kidnapping  you." 

"She  did  n't  tell  you  so,  did  she?" 

"No;  because  I  have  n't  seen  her  and  I'm  not 
supposed  to  see  her,  you  know,  until  Cecilia  is 
all  fixed." 

"Married?" 

"Um,"  replied  Hezekiah. 

She  drew  from  behind  a  boulder  by  which  we 
stood  a  pumpkin  of  portable  size,  which  I  sur- 
mised had  been  carved  into  the  most  hideous  of 
jack  o'  lanterns  by  the  shrewd  hand  of  Hezekiah. 
I  took  it  from  her  with  the  excuse  of  relieving 
her,  but  really  to  turn  the  light  of  the  fearsome 

287 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

thing  more  directly  upon  her.  The  wind  blew 
her  hair  about  her  face;  hers  was  an  elfish  face 
to-night.  With  a  pleasant  tingling  I  met  her 
eyes.  The  light  of  a  jack  o'  lantern  is  not  of  the 
earth  earthy.  Even  when  you  know  perfectly  well 
that  it's  only  a  candle  stuck  in  a  pumpkin,  you 
are  not  fully  satisfied  of  its  mundane  character. 
In  its  glow  one  becomes  a  conspirator,  ready 
for  treason,  stratagems  and  spoils.  More  con- 
cretely, in  these  moments  a  small  archipelago  of 
freckles  revealed  itself  about  Hezekiah's  nose  and 
caused  my  heart  to  palpitate  strangely.  Her  sun- 
browned  cheek  was  perilously  near.  I  hoped  that 
she  would  bend  forever  over  the  lantern,  so  that  I 
might  not  lose  the  tiny  shadows  of  her  lashes,  or, 
again,  the  laughter  of  her  brown  eyes  as  she 
glanced  up  to  ask  my  judgment  as  to  the  secur- 
ity of  the  candle.  She  viewed  her  handiwork  with 
feigned  solicitude,  the  tip  of  her  tongue  showing 
between  her  lips.  Then  the  mirth  in  her  bubbled 
out,  and  she  drew  away  and  clapped  her  hands 
together  like  a  child. 

"Come  !"  she  cried.  "If  you  are  good  and 
won't  begin  preaching  about  my  sins,  I'll  show 
you  the  funniest  thing  you  ever  saw  in  your  life." 

In  my  joy  of  seeing  her  I  was  neglecting  Ce- 
cilia's commission.  Very  likely  Hezekiah  had  for- 
gotten all  about  her  theft;  hers,  I  reasoned,  was  a 

288 


JACK  O'LANTERN 


nature  that  delighted  in  the  nearest  pleasure.  I 
would  follow  her  jack  o'  lantern  round  the  world 
for  the  chance  of  seeing  the  fun  brighten  in  her 
brown  eyes,  but  I  had  made  a  promise  to  Cecilia 
and  I  meant  to  fulfill  it. 

She  led  me  now  across  the  meadow,  over  a 
stone  wall,  up  a  steep  slope,  and  by  devious  ways 
through  a  strip  of  woodland.  I  bore  the  jack  o' 
lantern,  —  she  had  bidden  me  do  it,  with  some 
notion,  I  did  not  question,  of  making  me  parti- 
ceps  criminis  in  whatever  mischief  was  afoot. 
Dignified  conduct  in  a  man  of  twenty-eight,  in  his 
best  evening  clothes,  carrying  a  jack  o'  lantern 
over  stone  walls,  under  clumps  of  briar,  and 
through  woods  whose  boughs  clawed  the  night 
wildly !  The  moon  lost  and  found  under  the  fly- 
ing scud  was  in  keeping  with  the  general  irre- 
sponsibility of  a  world  ruled  by  Hezekiah. 

She  swung  along  ahead  of  me  with  the  greatest 
ease  and  certainty.  Occasionally  she  flung  some 
word  back  at  me  or  whistled  a  few  bars  of  a  tune, 
and  when  I  slipped  and  nearly  fell  on  a  smooth 
slope  she  laughed  mockingly  and  bade  me  not 
lose  the  pumpkin.  Once,  when  a  boy,  I  stole  a 
watermelon  and  bore  it  a  mile  to  the  rendezvous 
of  my  pirate  band  camped  at  a  riverside;  but 
carrying  a  pumpkin,  even  a  hollow  one,  is  at- 
tended with  manifold  discomforts.  It  would 

289 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

help,  I  reflected,  to  know  just  what  I  was  lug- 
ging it  for,  but  Hezekiah  vouchsafed  nothing. 
When  I  threatened  to  drop  the  grinning  gargoyle 
she  laughed  and  told  me  to  trot  along  and  not  be 
silly;  and  a  moment  later  she  stopped  and  de- 
manded that  I  repeat  fully  the  story  I  had  told 
her  aunt  of  the  finding  of  the  slipper. 

''You  are  better  than  I  thought  you  were, 
Chimney-Man!"  she  declared,  when  I  had  con- 
cluded and  added  her  aunt's  comment.  :'You 
m'ay  be  sure  that  tickled  Aunt  Octavia.  You  can 
lie  almost  as  well  as  an  architect.  Aunt  Octavia 
says  architects  are  better  liars  than  dress- 
makers." 

"It  was  my  weakness  for  the  truth  that  caused 
me  to  abandon  architecture.  For  heaven's  sake, 
what  are  you  up  to?" 

I  had  kept  little  account  of  the  direction  of 
our  flight,  and  I  was  surprised  that  we  had  now 
reached  the  stile  over  which  I  had  watched  the 
passing  of  the  suitors  on  the  afternoon  of  my 
meeting  with  Hezekiah  in  the  orchard. 

'This  is  the  appointed  place,"  she  remarked, 
taking  the  pumpkin  from  me  and  dropping  down 
on  the  far  side  of  the  stile. 

"Hezekiah,  I've  trotted  across  most  of  West- 
chester  County  after  you,  and  my  arm  is  para- 
lyzed from  carrying  that  pumpkin.  I  must  know 

290 


JACK  O'LANTERN 


what  you're  up  to  right  here,  or  I'll  go  home. 
Besides,  there's  a  mist  falling  and  you'll  be 
soaked.  What  do  you  suppose  your  father  thinks 
of  your  absence  at  this  time  of  night?" 

"Oh,  he'll  never  forgive  me  for  not  letting  him 
in  on  this.  This  is  the  grandest  thing  I  ever 
thought  of.  Sit  on  this  step  and  gently  incline 
your  ear  toward  the  house.  It 's  about  time  those 
gentlemen  were  leaving  Cecilia,  and  they'll  be 
galloping  for  their  inn  in  a  minute,  and  then"  — 

Hezekiah  whistled  the  rest  of  it. 

While  we  waited,  she  bade  me  reset  the  candle 
and  snuff  the  wick,  which  I  did  of  necessity  with 
my  fingers.  Sitting  on  a  stile  with  a  pretty  girl  is 
an  experience  that  has  been  commended  by  the 
balladists,  but  surely  this  felicity  loses  nothing 
where  the  night  is  fine.  When  you  get  used  to 
sitting  in  a  drizzle  in  your  dress-suit,  while  your 
shirt-bosom  assumes  the  consistency  of  a  gum 
shoe  and  your  collar  glues  itself  odiously  to  your 
neck,  I  dare  say  the  ordeal  may  be  borne  cheer- 
fully, but  my  expressions  of  discomfort  seemed 
only  to  amuse  Hezekiah.  While  we  waited  for  I 
knew  not  what,  I  tried  once  or  twice  to  revert  to 
the  silver  note-book,  but  without  success.  Heze- 
kiah was  a  mistress  of  the  art  of  evasion  with  her 
tongue  as  well  as  her  feet ! 

"  Wait  till  the  evening  performance  is  over  and 
291 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

I'll  talk  about  that.  'Sh!  Quiet!  Crawl  over 
there  out  of  the  way,  and  when  I  say  run,  beat  it 
for  the  road." 

These  last  phrases  were  uttered  in  a  whisper, 
her  face  close  to  my  ear.  She  gave  me  a  little 
push,  and  I  withdrew  a  few  yards  and  waited. 
The  ground,  I  may  say,  was  wet,  and  the  drizzle 
had  become  a  monotonous  autumn  rain. 

The  light  of  the  lantern  fell  warmly  upon 
Hezekiah's  face  as  she  held  its  illumined  counte- 
nance toward  her,  crouching  on  the  stile-steps.  I 
heard  now  what  her  keener  ear  had  caught  ear- 
lier —  the  tramp  of  feet  along  the  path.  The 
suitors  were  returning  to  the  inn,  and  the  voices 
of  one  or  two  of  them  reached  me.  One  —  I 
thought  it  was  Ormsby  —  was  execrating  the 
weather.  They  were  stepping  along  briskly,  and 
my  remembrance  of  their  retreat  over  this  same 
stile  through  the  amber  evening  dusk  was  so 
vivid  that  I  knew  just  how  they  would  appear  if 
a  light  suddenly  fell  upon  the  path. 

The  nature  of  Hezekiah's  undertaking  sud- 
denly dawned  upon  me.  No  one  but  Hezekiah 
could  ever  have  devised  anything  so  preposter- 
ous, so  utterly  lawless;  but  in  spite  of  myself  I 
waited  in  breathless  eagerness  for  the  outcome. 
I  could  not  have  interfered  now,  if  I  had  wished 
to  do  so,  without  betraying  her  and  involving 

292 


JACK  O'LANTERN 


myself  in  a  predicament  that  could  not  redound 
to  my  credit. 

Nearer  and  nearer  came  the  patter  of  feet,  and 


I  heard,  for  I  could  not  see,  the  scraping  of  Heze- 
kiah's  slipper,  —  a  wet  little  shoe  by  now !  —  as 
she  crept  higher  on  our  side  of  the  stile.  The  first 
suitor  groped  blindly  for  the  steps,  slipped  on  the 

293 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

wet  plank,  growled,  and  rose  to  try  again.  That 
growl  marked  for  me  the  leader  of  the  van. 
Hartley  Wiggins,  beyond  a  doubt,  and  in  no 
good  humor,  I  guessed!  The  others,  I  judged, 
had  trodden  upon  one  another's  heels  at  the  mo- 
ment Wiggins  stumbled.  Thus  let  us  imagine 
their  approach  —  six  gentlemen  in  top  hats 
headed  for  a  stile  on  a  chilly  night  of  rain. 

It  was  at  this  strategic  moment  that  Hezekiah 
pushed  into  the  middle  of  the  stile-platform,  its 
grinning  face  turned  toward  the  advancing  suit- 
ors, the  jack  o'  lantern  her  hand  had  fashioned. 

I  marked  its  position  by  its  faint  glow  an  in- 
stant, but  an  instant  only.  The  world  reeled  for  a 
moment  before  the  sharp  cry  of  a  man  in  fear.  It 
cut  the  dark  like  a  lash,  and  close  upon  it  the 
second  man  yelled,  in  a  different  key,  but  no  less 
in  accents  of  terror.  The  first  arrival  had  flung 
himself  back,  and  so  close  upon  him  pressed  the 
others  and  so  unexpected  was  the  halt,  that  the 
nine  men  seemed  to  have  flung  themselves  to- 
gether and  to  be  struggling  to  escape  from  the 
hideous  thing  that  had  interposed  itself  in  their 
path. 

All  was  over  in  a  moment.  In  the  midst  of  the 
panic  the  lantern  winked  out,  and  instantly  Hez- 
ekiah was  beside  me. 

"Skip!"  she  commanded  in  a  whisper;  and 
294 


JACK  O'LANTERN 


catching  my  hand  she  led  me  off  at  a  brisk  run. 
When  we  had  gone  a  dozen  rods  she  paused.  We 
heard  voices  from  the  stile,  where  the  gentlemen 
were  still  engaged  in  disentangling  themselves; 
and  then  the  planks  boomed  to  their  steps  as 
they  crossed.  They  talked  loudly  among  them- 
selves discussing  the  cause  of  their  discomfiture. 
The  lantern,  I  may  add,  had  been  knocked  off 
the  stile  by  the  thoughtful  Hezekiah  when  she 
blew  out  the  light. 

A  moment  more  and  all  sounds  of  the  suitors 
had  died  away.  I  stood  alone  with  Hezekiah  in 
the  midst  of  a  meadow.  She  was  breathing  hard. 
Suddenly  she  threw  up  her  head,  struck  her 
hands  together,  and  stamped  her  foot  upon  the 
wet  sod.  I  had  waited  for  an  outburst  of  laugh- 
ter now  that  we  were  safely  out  of  the  way,  but  I 
had  reasoned  without  my  Hezekiah.  Her  mood 
was  not  the  mood  of  mirth. 

"Well,  Hezekiah,"  I  said  when  I  had  got  my 
wind,  "you  pulled  off  your  joke,  but  you  don't 
seem  to  be  enjoying  it.  What's  the  matter?" 

"Oh,  that  Hartley  Wiggins!  I  might  have 
known  it!" 

"Known  what? "  I  asked,  pricking  up  my  ears. 

"That  he  would  be  afraid  of  a  pumpkin  with  a 
candle  inside  of  it.  Did  you  hear  that  yell?" 

"Anybody  would  have  yelled,"  I  suggested. 
295 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

"I  think  I  should  have  dropped  dead  if  you'd 
tried  it  on  me." 

"No,  you  would  n't,"  she  asserted  with  unex- 
pected flattery. 

"  Don't  be  deceived,  Hezekiah;  I  should  have 
been  scared  to  death  if  that  thing  had  popped 
up  in  front  of  me." 

"I  don't  believe  it.  I  gave  you  a  worse  test 
than  that.  When  I  switched  off  the  lights  and 
swung  a  feather  duster  down  the  stair-well  by  a 
string  and  tickled  your  face  you  did  n't  make 
a  noise  like  a  circus  calliope  scaring  horses  in 
Main  Street,  Podunk.  But  that  Wiggins  man ! " 

"He's  a  friend  of  mine  and  as  brave  as  a  lion. 
Out  in  Dakota  the  sheriff  used  to  get  him  to  go 
in  and  quiet  things  when  the  boys  were  shooting 
up  the  town." 

"Maybe;  but  he  shied  at  a  pumpkin  and  can 
be  no  true  knight  of  mine.  Cecilia  may  have  him. 
I  always  suspected  that  he  was  n't  the  real  thing. 
Why,  he's  even  afraid  of  Aunt  Octavia!" 

"Well,  I  rather  think  we  'd  better  be!" 

I  wanted  to  laugh,  but  I  did  not  dare.  I  was 
not  prepared  for  the  humor  in  which  the  panic  of 
the  suitors  had  left  her.  I  did  not  quite  make  out 
—  and  I  am  uncertain  to  this  day  —  whether  she 
had  really  wished  to  test  the  courage  of  her  sis- 
ter's lovers  or  whether  she  had  yielded  to  a  mis- 

296 


JACK  O'LANTERN 


chievous  impulse  in  carrying  the  jack  o'  lantern 
to  the  stile  and  thrusting  it  before  those  serious- 
minded  gentlemen  as  they  returned  from  Hope- 
field.  In  any  event  Hartley  Wiggins  was  out  of 
it  so  far  as  she,  Hezekiah,  was  concerned.  She 
trudged  doggedly  across  the  field  until  we  came 
presently  to  the  highway. 

"My  wheel 's  in  the  weeds  somewhere;  please 
pull  it  out  for  me.  I'm  going  home." 

"But  not  alone;  I  can't  let  you  do  that,  Heze- 
kiah." 

"Oh,  cheer  up!"  she  laughed,  aroused  by  my 
lugubrious  tone.  "And  here's  something  you 
asked  me  for.  Don't  drop  it.  It's  Cecilia's 
memorandum-book.  Give  it  back  to  her,  and  be 
sure  no  one  sees  it,  and  you  need  n't  look  into  it 
yourself.  And  we've  got  to  have  a  talk  about  it 
and  Cecilia.  Let  me  see.  There 's  an  iron  bridge 
across  an  arm  of  that  little  lake  over  there,  and 
just  beyond  it  a  big  fallen  tree.  To-morrow  at 
nine  o'clock  I'll  be  there.  I've  got  to  tell  you 
something,  Chimney-Man,  without  really  telling 
you.  You'll  be  there,  won't  you?" 

"I'll  be  there  if  I'm  alive,  Hezekiah." 

I  had  found  the  wheel  and  lighted  the  lamp. 
She  scouted  my  suggestion  that  I  find  a  horse 
and  drive  her  home.  The  lighting  of  the  lamp 
required  time  owing  to  the  wind  and  rain;  but 

297 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

when  its  thin  ribbon  of  light  fell  clearly  upon  the 
road,  she  seized  the  handle-bars  and  was  ready 
to  mount  without  ado. 

She  gave  me  her  hand,  —  it  was  a  cold,  wet 
little  hand,  but  there  was  a  good  friendly  grip  in 
it.  This  was  the  first  time  I  had  touched  Heze- 
kiah's  hand,  and  I  mention  it  because  as  I  write 
I  feel  again  the  pressure  of  her  slim  cold  fingers. 

"Sorry  you  spoiled  your  clothes,  but  it  was  in 
a  good  cause.  And  you  're  a  nice  boy,  Chimney- 
Man!" 

She  shot  away  into  the  darkness,  and  the 
lamp's  glow  on  the  road  vanished  in  an  instant; 
but  before  I  lost  her  quite,  her  cheery  whistle 
blew  back  to  me  reassuringly. 


XVII 

SEVEN   GOLD    REEDS 

I  WOKE  the  next  morning  to  the  banging  of  Miss 
Octavia's  fowling-piece.  In  spite  of  the  crowding 
incidents  of  the  day  and  night  I  had  slept 
soundly,  and  save  for  a  stiffness  of  the  legs  I  was 
none  the  worse  for  my  wetting.  The  service  of 
the  house  was  perfect,  and  in  response  to  my 
ring  a  man  appeared  who  declared  himself  com- 
petent to  knock  my  dress  clothes  into  shape 
again. 

I  should  hardly  have  believed  that  so  much 
history  had  been  made  in  a  night,  if  it  had  not 
been  for  certain  indubitable  evidence:  Cecilia's 
silver  note-book;  Hezekiah's  handkerchief,  which 
I  had  forgotten  to  return  to  her;  and  a  patch  of 
tallow  grease  from  the  jack  o'  lantern  that  had 
attached  itself  firmly  to  my  coat-cuff. 

Cecilia  met  me  at  the  foot  of  the  stairs,  look- 
ing rather  worn,  I  thought.  We  were  safe  from 
interruption  a  moment  longer,  as  her  aunt's  gun 
was  still  booming,  and  I  followed  her  to  the 
library. 

"Please  don't  tell  me  you  have  failed,"  she 
299 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

cried  tearfully.  "That  little  book  means  so 
much,  so  very  much  to  us  all!" 

"Here  it  is,  Miss  Hollister,"  I  said,  placing  it 
in  her  hand  without  parley.  "I  beg  to  assure  you 
that  I  return  it  just  as  you  saw  it  last.  Please 
satisfy  yourself  that  it  has  not  been  tampered 
with  in  any  way.  I  have  not  opened  it;  and  it  has 
not  left  my  hand  since  I  recovered  it." 

She  had  almost  snatched  it  from  me,  and  she 
turned  slightly  away  and  ran  hurriedly  over  the 
leaves. 

In  her  relief  she  laughed  happily;  and  with  one 
of  her  charming,  graceful  gestures  she  gave  me 
her  hand. 

"I  thank  you,  Mr.  Ames;  thank  you!  thank 
you !  You  have  rendered  me  the  greatest  service. 
And  I  hope  you  were  able  to  do  so  without  seri- 
ous inconvenience  to  yourself." 

"On  the  other  hand  it  was  the  smallest  mat- 
ter, and  instead  of  being  a  trouble  I  found  the 
greatest  pleasure  in  recovering  it." 

I  stood  with  my  hands  thrust  carelessly  into 
my  trousers  pockets,  rocking  slightly  upon  my 
heels  to  convey  a  sense  of  the  unimportance  of 
my  service.  It  was  a  manner  I  had  cultivated  to 
meet  the  surprise  and  gratitude  of  my  clients 
when  I  had  brought  a  seemingly  incurable  flue 
into  a  state  of  subjection.  I  think  I  may  have 

300 


SEVEN  GOLD  REEDS 


appeared  a  little  bored,  as  though  I  had  accom- 
plished a  feat  that  was  rather  unworthy  of  my 
powers.  A  doctor  who  prescribes  the  wrong  pill 
and  finds  to  his  amazement  that  it  cures  the 
patient,  might  improve  upon  that  manner,  but 
not  greatly. 

"You  naturally  wonder,  Miss  Hollister,  how  I 
found  this  trinket  so  readily.  And  in  order  that 
you  may  not  suspect  perfectly  innocent  persons, 
I  will  tell  you  exactly  how  I  came  by  it.  It  was 
your  belief  that  you  had  left  it  on  your  dressing- 
table.  But  as  a  memorandum-book  of  any  char- 
acter pertains  to  a  writing-desk  rather  than  to  a 
dressing-table,  my  interest  centred  at  once  upon 
such  writing-table  as  you  doubtless  have  in  your 
room." 

"There  is  a  writing-desk,  in  the  corner  by  the 
window,  but"  — 

"Ah,  you  are  about  to  repeat  your  belief  that 
you  left  the  book  on  the  dressing-table  and  that 
it  could  not  have  moved  to  the  desk.  May  I  ask 
whether  you  did  not,  just  before  you  came  down 
to  dinner,  scribble  me  a  line  asking  for  an  inter- 
view?" 

"Why,  yes;  I  remember  that  perfectly." 

"You  wrote  in  some  haste,  as  indicated  by  the 
handwriting  in  your  message.  It  is  possible  that 
you  wrote  and  destroyed  one  note,  or  perhaps 

301 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

two,  before  you  had  expressed  yourself  exactly 
to  your  liking.  We  are  all  of  us,  with  any  sort 
of  feeling  for  style,  prone  to  just  such  rejec- 
tions." 

"It  is  possible  that  I  did,"  she  replied,  color- 
ing slightly.  "I  was  extremely  anxious  to  see 

you." 

"Very  well,  then;  is  it  not  possible  that  in 
throwing  the  rejected  correspondence  cards  into 
the  waste-paper  basket  that  stands  beside  your 
desk,  —  there  is  such  a  basket,  is  there  not?" 

:'Yes,"  she  replied  breathlessly. 

"Is  it  not  possible,  then,  that  that  little  book- 
let, hardly  heavier  than  paper  itself,  may  have 
been  brushed  off  without  your  seeing  it?" 

"It  is  possible;  I  must  admit  that  it  is  pos- 
sible; but"  — 

"It  is  on  that  'but'  that  any  theory  implicat- 
ing another  hand  must  break.  What  I  have  indi- 
cated is  exactly  what  must  have  happened.  To 
the  nice  care  that  characterizes  the  house-keep- 
ing of  this  establishment  we  must  now  turn.  I 
find  that  when  I  go  to  my  own  room  after  dinner 
it  is  always  in  perfect  order,  —  pens  restored 
to  the  rack  on  my  writing-table,  brushes  laid 
straight  on  the  dressing-table,  and  so  on.  The 
well-trained  maid  who  cares  for  your  room,  see- 
ing scraps  of  paper  in  the  basket  by  your  desk, 

302 


SEVEN  GOLD  REEDS 


naturally  carried  it  off.  When  I  accepted  your 
commission  last  night  I  went  directly  to  the  cel- 
lar, sought  the  bin  into  which  waste  paper  is 
thrown,  and  found  among  old  envelopes  and 
other  litter  this  small  trinket,  which  but  for  my 
promptness  might  have  been  lost  forever." 

"It  does  n't  seem  possible,"  she  faltered. 

"Oh,"  I  laughed  easily,  "possible  or  impos- 
sible, you  could  not  on  the  witness-stand  swear 
that  the  book  had  not  dropped  into  the  waste- 
paper  basket  precisely  as  I  have  described." 

"No,  I  suppose  I  couldn't,"  she  answered 
slowly. 

My  powers  of  mendacity  were  improving;  but 
her  relief  at  holding  the  book  again  in  her  hand 
was  so  great  that  she  would  probably  have 
believed  anything. 

"You  see,"  she  said,  clasping  the  book  tight, 
"this  was  given  me  for  a  particular  purpose  and 
it  contains  a  memorandum  of  greatest  impor- 
tance. And  I  was  in  a  panic  when  I  found  that 
it  was  gone,  for  my  recollection  of  certain  items 
I  had  recorded  here  was  confused,  and  there  was 
no  possible  way  of  setting  myself  straight.  Now 
all  is  clear  again.  I  feel  that  I  make  poor  ac- 
knowledgment of  your  service;  but  if,  at  any 
time" 

"Pray  think  no  more  of  it,"  I  replied;  and  at 
303 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

this  moment  Miss  Hollister  appeared  and  called 
us  to  breakfast. 

"If  it  is  perfectly  agreeable  to  you,  Arnold,  I 
will  hear  the  story  of  the  finding  of  the  ghost  at 
four  o'clock,  or  just  before  tea.  I  have  sent  a 
telegram  to  Mr.  Pepperton  asking  him  to  be  pre- 
sent. He  's  at  his  country  home  in  Redding  and 
can  very  easily  motor  down.  As  no  motors  are 
allowed  on  my  premises  he  shall  be  met  at  the 
gate  with  a  trap." 

'You  have  sent  for  Pepperton!"  I  exclaimed. 

"That  is  exactly  what  I  have  done,  and  as  he 
knows  that  I  never  accept  apologies  under  any 
circumstances,  he  will  not  disappoint  me.  In 
addition  to  reprimanding  him  for  not  telling  me 
of  the  secret  passage  in  this  house,  I  have  another 
matter  that  concerns  you,  Arnold,  which  I  wish 
to  lay  before  him.  The  new  cook  that  Providence 
sent  to  my  kitchen  yesterday  is  the  best  we  have 
had,  Cecilia,  and  I  beg  that  you  both  indulge 
yourselves  in  a  second  helping  of  country  scram- 
bled eggs." 

Miss  Octavia  made  no  further  allusion  to  the 
incidents  of  the  night,  but  went  on  turning  over 
her  mail.  I  have  neglected  to  say  that  her  library 
contained  a  most  remarkable  array  of  books  in 
praise  of  man's  fortitude  and  daring.  I  have 
learned  later  that  these  had  been  assembled  for 

304 


SEVEN  GOLD  REEDS 


her  by  a  distinguished  scholar,  and  many  of  them 
were  rare  editions.  A  "Karlamagnus  Saga"  el- 
bowed Malory  and  the  "Reali  di  Francia ;"  and 
Roland's  horn  challenged  in  all  languages.  She 
greatly  admired  and  had  often  visited  the  Cha- 
teau de  Luynes,  and  had  a  portfolio  filled  with 
water-color  and  pen-and-ink  drawings  of  it. 
Such  books  as  Viollet-le-Duc's  "  Dictionnaire  du 
Mobilier  Fran9ais"  I  constantly  found  lying 
spread  open  on  the  library  table.  She  read  Ger- 
man and  French  readily,  and  declared  her  pur- 
pose to  attack  old  French  that  she  might  pursue 
certain  obscure  chansons  de  geste  which,  an  Ox- 
ford professor  had  told  her,  were  not  susceptible 
of  adequate  translation.  Why  should  one  read 
the  news  of  the  day  when  the  news  of  all  time 
was  available!  Magazines  and  reviews  she  tol- 
erated, but  no  newspaper  was  as  good  as  Frois- 
sart.  She  therefore  read  newspapers  only  through 
a  clipping  bureau,  which  sent  her  items  bearing 
upon  her  own  peculiar  interests.  By  some  error 
the  story  of  a  heavy  embezzlement  in  a  city  bank 
had  that  day  crept  in  among  a  number  of  cut- 
tings relating  to  a  ship  that  had  been  found  some- 
where off  the  Chilean  coast  with  all  sails  set  and 
everything  in  perfect  order,  but  with  not  a  soul 
on  board.  She  expressed  her  bitterest  contempt 
for  men  in  responsible  positions  who  betrayed 

305 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

their  trusts:  highway  robbery  she  thought  a 
much  nobler  crime,  as  the  robber  dignified  his  act 
by  exposing  himself  to  personal  danger. 

"In  our  day,  Arnold,"  she  said,  placing  her 
knife  and  fork  carefully  on  her  plate,  "in  our  day 
the  ten  commandments  have  lost  their  moral 
significance  and  retain,  I  fear,  only  a  very  slight 
literary  interest." 

She  reminded  Cecilia  of  an  appointment  to 
ride  that  morning;  in  the  early  afternoon  she  was 
to  install  a  new  kennel-master;  and  otherwise 
there  was  a  full  day  ahead  of  her.  It  was  a  cheer- 
ful breakfast  table.  A  letter  from  my  assistant 
confirming  his  telegraphed  resignation  did  not 
disturb  me;  Miss  Octavia  showed  no  further  signs 
of  abandoning  her  quest  of  the  golden  coasts  of 
youth,  and  Cecilia,  having  recovered  her  note- 
book, faced  the  new  day  cheerfully. 

A  little  later  I  met  Miss  Hollister  in  the  hall 
dressed  for  her  ride. 

"Arnold,  you  may  ride  whenever  you  like.  I 
may  have  forgotten  to  mention  it.  What  have 
you  on  hand  this  morning?  " 

"An  appointment  with  a  lady,"  I  replied. 

"If  you  are  about  to  meet  the  owner  of 
that  Beacon  Street  slipper  I  wish  you  good 
luck." 

She  was  drawing  on  her  gauntlets,  and  turned 
306 


SEVEN  GOLD  REEDS 


away  to  hide  a  smile,  I  thought;  then  she  tapped 
me  lightly  with  her  riding-crop. 

"Cecilia's  silver  note-book  was  missing  last 
night.  She  told  me  of  her  loss  with  tears.  She 
has  it  again  this  morning.  Did  you  restore 
it?" 

"It  was  my  good  fortune  to  do  so." 

"Then  allow  me  to  add  my  thanks  to  hers. 
You  are  an  unusually  practical  person,  Arnold 
Ames,  as  well  as  the  possessor  of  an  imagination 
that  pleases  me.  You  are  becoming  more  and 
more  essential  to  me.  Cecilia  approaches,  and  I 
cannot  say  more  at  this  time." 

When  they  had  ridden  out  of  the  porte- 
cochere  I  set  off  across  the  fields  to  keep  my 
tryst  with  Hezekiah.  The  air  had  been  washed 
sweet  and  clean  by  the  rain  of  the  night,  and  sky 
was  never  bluer.  I  was  surprised  at  my  own  in- 
creasing detachment  from  the  world.  Nothing 
that  had  happened  before  the  Asolando  mat- 
tered greatly;  my  meeting  with  Miss  Octavia 
Hollister  had  marked  a  climacteric  from  which 
all  events  must  now  be  reckoned.  I  had  em- 
barked with  high  hope  in  a  profession  to  which  I 
had  been  drawn  from  youth,  had  failed  utterly 
to  find  clients,  and  had  therefore  taken  up  the 
doctoring  of  flues,  a  vocation  whose  honors  are 
few  and  dubious,  and  in  which  I  felt  it  to  be 

307 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

damning  praise  that  I  was  called  the  best  in 
America.  My  days  at  Hopefield  were  the  hap- 
piest of  my  life.  Few  as  they  had  been,  they  had 
changed  my  gray  bleak  course  into  a  path  bright 
with  promise.  The  world  had  been  too  much  with 
me,  and  I  had  escaped  from  it  as  completely  as 
though  I  had  stepped  upon  another  planet "  where 
all  is  possible  and  all  unknown." 

I  reached  the  fallen  tree  that  Hezekiah  had 
appointed  as  our  trysting-place  a  little  ahead 
of  time,  and  indulged  in  pleasant  speculations 
while  I  waited.  I  was  looking  toward  the  hills 
expecting  her  to  come  skimming  along  the  high- 
way on  her  bicycle,  when  a  splash  caused  me  to 
turn  to  the  lake.  Dull  of  me  not  to  have  known 
that  Hezekiah  would  contrive  a  new  entrance 
for  a  scene  so  charmingly  set  as  this!  She  had 
stolen  upon  me  in  a  light  skiff,  and  laughed  to 
see  how  her  silent  approach  startled  me.  She 
dropped  one  oar  and  used  the  other  as  a  paddle, 
driving  the  boat  with  a  sure  hand  through  the 
reeds  into  the  bank. 

"  'Tis  morning  and  the  days  are  long!  " 

Such  was  Hezekiah's  greeting  as  she  jumped 
ashore.  She  wore  a  dark  green  skirt  and  coat, 
and  a  narrow  four-in-hand  cravat  tied  under  a 
flannel  collar  that  clasped  her  throat  snugly.  A 

308 


SEVEN  GOLD  REEDS 


boy's  felt  hat,  with  the  brim  pinned  up  in  front, 
covered  her  head. 

"You  seem  none  the  worse  for  your  wetting, 
Hezekiah.  You  must  have  been  soaked." 

"So  must  you,  Chimneys,  but  you  look  as  fit 
as  I  feel,  and  I  never  felt  better.  Did  they  catch 
you  crawling  in  last  night?" 

"I  did  n't  see  a  soul.  You  know  I'm  an  old 
member  of  the  family  now.  Nobody  was  ever  as 
nice  to  me  as  your  Aunt  Octavia." 

"How  about  Cecilia?" 

"  Having  found  her  silver  note-book  and  given 
it  back  to  her  before  breakfast,  I  may  say  that 
our  relations  are  altogether  cordial." 

"Are  you  in  love  with  her  —  yet?"  asked 
Hezekiah,  carelessly,  tossing  a  pebble  into  the 
lake.  The  "yet"  was  so  timed  that  it  splashed 
with  the  pebble. 

"No;  not  —  yet,"  I  replied. 

"It  will  come,"  said  Hezekiah  a  little  rue- 
fully, casting  a  pebble  farther  upon  the  crinkled 
water. 

"You  mean,  Hezekiah,  that  men  always  fall 
in  love  with  your  sister." 

She  nodded. 

"Well,  she's  a  good  deal  of  a  girl." 

"Beautiful  and  no  end  cultivated.  They  all  go 
crazy  about  her." 

309 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

;<You  mean  Hartley  Wiggins  and  his  fellow- 
bandits  at  the  Prescott  Arms." 

;<Yes;  and  lots  of  others." 

"And  sometimes,  Hezekiah,  it  has  seemed  to 
you  that  she  got  all  the  admiration,  and  that  you 
did  n't  get  your  share.  So  when  her  suitors 
began  a  siege  of  the  castle  whose  gates  were 
locked  against  you,  you  plugged  the  chimney 
with  a  trunk-tray,  and  played  at  being  ghost  and 
otherwise  sought  to  terrify  your  sister's  lovers." 

"That 's  not  nice,  Chimneys.  You  mean  that 
I'm  jealous." 

"No.  I  don't  mean  that  you  are  jealous  now: 
I  throw  it  into  the  remote  and  irrevocable  past. 
You  were  jealous.  You  don't  care  so  much  now. 
And  I  hope  you  will  care  less!" 

"That  is  being  impertinent.  If  you  talk  that 
way  I  shall  call  you  Mr.  Ames  and  go  home!" 

'You  can't  do  that,  Hezekiah." 

"I  should  like  to  know  why  not?  If  you  say 
I  'm  jealous  of  Cecilia  now,  or  that  I  ever  was,  I 
shall  be  very,  very  angry.  For  it's  not  true." 

"No.  You  see  things  very  differently  now. 
You  told  me  only  last  night  that  Cecilia  might 
have  Hartley  Wiggins.  Assuming  that  she  wants 
him!  And  you  and  he  have  been  good  friends, 
have  n't  you?  You  had  good  times  on  the  other 
side.  And  while  Cecilia  was  in  town  assisting 

310 


SEVEN  GOLD  REEDS 


Providence  in  finding  your  aunt  a  cook,  you  went 
walking  with  him." 

"I  did,  I  did!"  mocked  Hezekiah.  "And  why 
do  you  suppose  I  did?" 

"Because  Wiggy 's  the  best  of  fellows;  a  solid, 
substantial  citizen,  who  raises  wheat  to  make 
bread  out  of." 

"And  angel  food  and  ginger  cookies,"  added 
Hezekiah,  feeling  absently  in  the  pockets  of  her 
coat.  "  No,  Chimneys,  you  're  a  nice  boy  and  you 
don't  yell  like  a  wild  man  when  a  feather-duster 
hits  you  in  the  dark;  but  there  are  some  things 
you  don't  know  yet." 

"I  am  here  to  grow  wise  at  the  feet  of  Heze- 
kiah, Daughter  of  Kings.  Open  the  book  of 
wisdom  and  teach  me  the  alphabet,  but  don't 
be  sad  if  I  balk  at  the  grammar." 

"I  never  knew  all  the  alphabet  myself,"  said 
Hezekiah  dolefully;  then  she  laughed  abruptly. 
"I  was  bounced  from  two  convents  and  no  end 
of  Hudson  River  and  Fifth  Avenue  education 
shops." 

"The  brutality  of  that,  Hezekiah,  wrings  my 
heart!  Yet  you  are  the  best  teacher  I  ever  had, 
and  I  thought  I  was  educated  when  I  met  you. 
But  I  had  only  been  to  school,  which  is  different. 
Not  until  the  first  time  our  eyes  met,  not  until 
that  supreme  moment"  — 

311 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

"  Mr.  Ames,"  Hezekiah  interrupted,  in  the  hap- 
piest possible  imitation  of  Miss  Octavia's  man- 
ner, "if  you  think  that,  because  I  am  a  poor  lone 
girl  who  knows  nothing  of  the  great,  wide  world,  I 
am  a  fair  mark  for  your  cajolery,  I  assure  you  that 
you  were  never  more  mistaken  in  your  life!" 

"You  ought  n't  to  mimic  your  aunt.  It  is  n't 
respectful;  and  besides  you  have  something  to 
tell  me.  What 's  all  this  rumpus  about  Cecilia's 
silver  memorandum-book?  Suppose  we  discuss 
that  and  get  through  with  it." 

We  were  sitting  on  the  fallen  tree,  which  lay 
partly  in  the  lake,  and  Hezekiah  leaned  over  and 
broke  off  a  number  of  reeds  from  the  thicket  at 
the  water's  edge.  Out  of  her  pocket  she  drew  a 
small  penknife  and  trimmed  them  uniformly. 

:'You  see,"  she  began,  biting  her  lip  in  the 
earnestness  of  her  labor,  "I'm  going  to  tell  you 
something,  and  yet  I  'm  not  going  to  tell  you.  So 
far  as  you  and  I  have  gone  you  've  been  tolerably 
satisfactory.  If  I  did  n't  think  you  had  some 
wits  in  your  head  I  should  n't  have  bothered 
with  you  at  all.  That's  frank,  is  n't  it?" 

"It  certainly  is.  But  I'm  terribly  fussed  for 
fear  I  may  not  be  equal  to  this  new  ordeal." 

"If  you  fail  we  shall  never  meet  again;  that's 
all  there  is  to  that.  Now  listen  real  hard.  You 
know  something  about  it  already,  but  not  the 

312 


SEVEN  GOLD  REEDS 


main  point.  Aunt  Octavia  got  father  to  consent 
to  let  her  marry  us  off  —  Cecilia  and  me.  Ce- 
cilia, being  older,  came  first.  I  was  to  keep  out 
of  the  way,  and  father  and  I  were  not  to  come 
to  Aunt  Octavia's  new  house  up  there  or  meddle 
in  any  way.  While  we  were  abroad  I  was  treated 
as  a  little  girl,  and  not  as  a  grown-up  at  all.  But 
you  see  I  'm  really  nineteen,  and  some  of  Cecilia's 
suitors  were  nice  to  me  when  we  were  traveling. 
They  were  nice  to  me  on  Cecilia's  account,  you 
know." 

"Of  course.  You're  so  hard  to  look  at,  it 
must  have  been  painful  to  them  to  be  nice 
to  you,  —  almost  like  taking  poison !  Go  on, 
Hezekiah!" 

"You  need  n't  interrupt  me  like  that.  Well,  as 
part  of  the  understanding,  and  Cecilia  agreed  to 
it,  —  she  thought  she  had  to  for  papa's  sake,  — 
she  was  to  marry  a  particular  man.  Do  you  un- 
derstand me,  a  particular  man?  Aunt  Octavia 
gave  her  the  little  note-book  —  she  bought  it  at 
a  shop  in  Paris  at  the  time  Cecilia  consented  to 
the  plan  —  and  she  was  to  keep  a  sort  of  diary, 
so  that  she'd  know  when  the  right  man  turned 
up.  Now  we  will  drop  the  note-book  for  a 
minute;  only  I'll  say  that  Cecilia  was  to  keep 
the  book  all  to  herself  and  not  show  it  to  any 
one,  not  even  to  Aunt  Octavia,  you  know,  until 

313 


THE  SIEGE  or  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

the  right  man  had  asked  Cecilia  to  marry  him. 
Now  who  do  you  suppose,  Mr.  Ames,  that  man 
is?" 

I  watched  her  hands  as  they  deftly  cut  and 
fashioned  the  dry  reeds.  The  air  grew  warm  as 
the  sun  climbed  to  the  zenith,  and  Hezekiah 
flung  aside  her  coat.  The  breeze  caught  the  ends 
of  her  tie  and  snapped  them  behind  her.  She 
was  wholly  absorbed  in  her  task,  and  no  boy  could 
have  managed  a  pocket-knife  better.  The  first 
reed  she  made  a  trifle  longer  than  her  hand;  the 
succeeding  ones  she  trimmed  to  graduated  less- 
ening lengths,  till  seven  in  all  had  been  cut, 
and  then  she  notched  them. 

"Seven,"  she  murmured,  laying  them  neatly 
in  order  on  her  knee.  "I  remember  the  right 
number  by  a  poem  I  read  the  other  day  in  an  old 
magazine." 

She  reached  down  and  plucked  several  long 
leaves  of  iough  grass  with  which  she  began  to 
bind  the  reeds  together,  repeating,  — 

"  Seven  gold  reeds  grew  tall  and  slim, 
Close  by  the  river's  beaded  brim. 

"  Syrnix  the  naiad  flitted  past: 
Pan,  the  goat-hoofed,  followed  fast. 

"It  will  be  easier,"  said  Hezekiah,  "if  you  hold 
the  pipes  while  I  tie  them." 

I  found  this  propinquity  wholly  agreeable.   It 
314 


SEVEN  GOLD  REEDS 


was  pleasant  to  sit  on  a  log  beside  Hezekiah.  It 
seemed  no  far  cry  to  the  storied  Mediterranean 
and  Pan  and  dryads  and  naiads,  as  Hezekiah 
bound  her  reeds  to  the  music  of  couplets.  There 
was  no  self -consciousness  in  her  recitation;  she 
seemed  to  be  telling  me  of  something  that  she 
had  seen  herself  an  hour  ago. 

"  He  spread  his  arms  to  clasp  her  there 
Just  as  she  vanished  into  air. 

'*  And  to  his  bosom  warm  and  rough 
Drew  the  gold  reeds  close  enough. 

"I  don't  remember  the  rest,"  she  broke  off. 
" But  there !  That's  a  pipe  fit  for  any  shepherd." 

She  put  it  to  her  lips  and  blew.  I  shall  not 
pretend. that  the  result  was  melodious:  she  whis- 
tled much  better  without  the  reeds;  but  the 
sight  of  her,  sitting  on  the  fallen  tree  beside  the 
lake,  beating  time  with  her  foot,  her  head  thrown 
back,  her  eyes  half-closed  in  a  mockery  of  rap- 
ture at  the  shrill,  wheezy  uncertainties  and  in- 
eptitudes she  evoked,  thrilled  me  with  new  and 
wonderful  longings.  A  heart,  a  spirit  like  hers 
would  never  grow  old !  She  was  next  of  kin  to  all 
the  elusive,  fugitive  company  of  the  elf-world. 
And  on  such  a  pipe  as  she  had  strung  together 
beside  that  pond,  to  this  day  Sicilian  shepherd 
boys  whistle  themselves  into  tune  with  Theo- 
critus ! 

315 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

"Take  it,"  she  said;  "I  can't  tell  you  more 
than  I  have;  and  yet  it  is  all  there,  Chimneys. 
Read  the  riddle  of  the  reeds  if  you  can." 


I  took  the  pipe  and  turned  it  over  carefully  in 
my  hands;  but  I  fear  my  thoughts  were  rather 
of  the  hands  that  had  fashioned  it,  the  fingers 
that  had  danced  nimbly  upon  the  stops. 

316 


SEVEN  GOLD  REEDS 


"There  are  seven  reeds,  —  seven,"  she  af- 
firmed. 

She  amused  herself  by  skipping  pebbles  over 
the  surface  of  the  water  while  I  pondered.  And  I 
deliberated  long,  for  one  did  not  like  to  blunder 
before  Hezekiah!  Then  I  jumped  up  and  called 
to  her. 

"One,  two,  three,  four,  five,  six  —  seven!  Not 
until  the  seventh  man  offers  himself  shall  Cecilia 
have  a  husband !  Is  that  the  answer?  " 

For  a  moment  Hezekiah  watched  the  widening 
ripples  made  by  the  casting  of  her  last  pebble; 
then  she  came  back  and  resumed  her  seat. 

"You  have  done  well,  Chimney  Man;  and 
now  I  '11  not  make  you  guess  any  more,  though  I 
found  it  all  out  for  myself.  When  Aunt  Octavia 
gave  that  memorandum-book  to  Cecilia,  I  knew 
it  must  have  something  to  do  with  the  seventh 
man.  You  know  I  love  all  Aunt  Octavia's  non- 
sense because  it's  the  kind  of  foolishness  I  like 
myself,  and  the  idea  of  a  pretty  little  note-book 
to  write  down  proposals  in  was  precisely  the  sort 
of  thing  that  would  have  occurred  to  my  aunt. 
And  it  was  in  the  bargain,  too,  that  she  herself 
should  not  in  any  way  interfere,  or  try  to  influ- 
ence the  course  of  events :  it  should  be  the  seventh 
suitor,  willy-nilly.  And  I  suspect  she's  been  a 
little  scared  too." 

317 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

"She  has  indeed!  She  was  almost  ready  to 
throw  the  whole  scheme  over  last  night.  Your 
naughtiness  had  got  on  her  nerves." 

;'You  missed  the  target  that  time:  Aunt  Oc- 
tavia  loves  my  naughtiness,  and  I  think  she  has 
really  been  afraid  Sir  Pumpkin  Wiggins  would 
catch  me.  Now  I  did  n't  roam  my  aunt's  house 
just  for  fun.  I  was  doing  my  best  to  keep  Cecilia 
from  getting  into  some  scrape  about  that  seventh- 
suitor  plan.  I  found  out  by  chance  how  to  get 
into  Hopefield,  and  about  the  hidden  stairway 
and  the  old  rooms  tucked  away  there.  Papa 
really  discovered  that.  A  carpenter  in  Katonah 
who  worked  on  the  house  helped  to  build  papa's 
bungalow,  and  he  told  us  how  that  ruin  came  to 
be  there.  That  dyspepsia-cure  man,  who  also 
immortalized  himself  by  inventing  the  ribless 
umbrella,  was  very  superstitious.  He  believed 
that  if  he  built  an  entirely  new  house  he  would 
die.  So  he  had  his  architect  build  around  and 
retain  those  two  rooms  and  that  stairway  of  a 
house  that  had  been  on  the  ground  almost  since 
the  Revolution.  Mr.  Pepperton,  the  architect, 
humored  him,  but  hid  the  remains  of  the  relic  as 
far  out  of  sight  as  possible." 

"Trust  Pep  for  that!   And  he  did  it  neatly!" 

;<  Yes;  but  it  did  n't  save  the  umbrella-man;  he 
died  anyhow;  or  maybe  his  pies  killed  him.  Papa 

318 


SEVEN  GOLD  REEDS 


was  so  curious  about  it  that  he  took  me  with  him 
one  night  just  before  Aunt  Octavia  moved  here, 
and  he  and  I  found  the  rooms  and  the  stair  and 
the  secret  spring  by  which,  if  you  know  just 
where  to  poke  the  wall  in  the  fourth-floor  hall, 
you  can  disappear  as  mysteriously  as  you 
please." 

"But  how  on  earth  did  you  darken  the  halls  so 
easily?  You  nearly  gave  me  heart-disease  doing 
that!" 

"Oh,  that  was  a  mere  matter  of  a  young  lady 
in  haste !  When  I  found  how  easily  I  could  pass 
you  on  the  stair  it  became  a  fascinating  game, 
and  it  was  no  end  of  fun  to  see  just  how  long  it 
would  take  you  to  catch  me." 

"I  wish,  Hezekiah,  that  you  would  stay 
caught!" 

"Be  very,  very  careful,  sir!  We 're  talking  busi- 
ness now.  There's  another  ordeal  for  you  before 
you  dare  become  sentimental." 

"Then  hasten;  let  us  be  after  it." 

"Things  are  in  a  serious  predicament,  I  can 
tell  you.  I  was  frightened  when  I  looked  into 
that  note-book,  —  I  did  n't  like  to  do  that,  but  I 
had  to  assist  Providence  a  little.  Five  men  have 
already  got  their  quietus." 

"Then  why  don't  they  clear  out,  and  stop 
their  nonsense?  " 

319 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

"Oh,  it's  their  pride,  I  suppose;  and  every 
man  probably  thinks  that  when  Cecilia  has  seen 
a  little  more  of  him  in  particular,  in  contrast  with 
the  others,  he  will  win  her  favor.  They  're  afraid 
of  one  another,  those  men;  that's  the  reason 
they've  been  herding  together  so  close  since 
that  first  day  you  came.  Mr.  Wiggins  was  taking 
it  for  granted  that  he  was  the  whole  thing  —  just 
like  the  man !  —  and  those  others  forced  him  to 
join  in  some  sort  of  arrangement  by  which  they 
were  to  hang  together.  These  calls  in  a  bunch 
came  from  that,  as  though  any  one  of  them 
would  n't  take  advantage  of  the  others  if  he  saw 
a  chance!  Some  of  this  I  got  from  Wiggy  him- 
self, the  rest  I  just  guessed." 

"But  you  may  not  know  that  they  sent  a  dele- 
gation after  me  into  town,  to  warn  me  off  the 
grass." 

"That  was  Mr.  Dick.  He  never  saw  me  when 
Cecilia  was  around.  And  he  was  terribly  snippy 
sometimes,  and  supercilious;  but  I'm  going  to 
get  even  with  him.  I've  about  underlined  him 
for  number  six,"  she  concluded,  with  the  man- 
ner of  a  queen  who,  about  to  give  her  chief  exe- 
cutioner his  orders  for  the  day,  glances  calmly 
over  the  list  of  victims. 

"That's  a  good  idea;  Dick  is  insufferable;  I 
hope  you  have  n't  counted  wrong." 

320 


SEVEN  GOLD  REEDS 


"As  we  were  saying,  about  the  note-book," 
she  resumed,  "the  fifth  man  has  already  been 
respectfully  declined.  The  dates  of  the  proposals 
are  written  in  the  note-book;  so  I  learned  from 
the  book  that  Mr.  Ormsby,  Mr.  Arbuthnot,  and 
Mr.  Gorse  had  proposed  on  the  steamer.  Profes- 
sor Hume,  as  you  know,  tried  his  luck  at  Hope- 
field;  and  Lord  Arrowood  must  have  stopped 
Cecilia  as  she  was  riding  to  the  station  on  my 
bicycle  yesterday  morning.  His  goose  is  cooked." 

"His  gooseberry  pie  was  cooked,  but  I  took  it 
away  from  him.  No  pie  sacred  to  Hezekiah  can 
be  confiscated  by  an  indigent  lord  so  long  as  I 
keep  my  present  health  and  spirits.  It's  the 
close  season  for  lords  in  Westchester  County;  I 
potted  the  last  one.  By  the  way,  he  thought  you 
were  a  real  ghost  when  you  were  playing  tag 
with  him  in  the  dark." 

"He  stopped  to  tell  papa  good-bye  and  spoke 
very  highly  of  you;  papa  and  you  are  the  only 
gentlemen  he  met  in  America.  But  now  we  come 
to  Mr.  Wiggins." 

"We  do;  and  why  in  the  name  of  all  that  is 
beautiful  and  good  has  n't  he  tried  his  luck?" 

"Because,  knowing  Cecilia's  admiration  for 
him,"  replied  Hezekiah  demurely,  "I  have  kept 
him  so  diverted  that  he  has  n't  been  able  to  bring 
himself  to  the  scratch." 

321 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

She  examined  the  palm  of  her  hand  critically 
to  allow  me  time  to  grasp  this. 

"You  did  n't  want  him  to  blunder  in  as  the 
first,  fourth,  or  sixth  man?" 

Hezekiah  gravely  nodded  her  pretty  head. 

"And  while  you  were  engaged  in  this  sisterly 
labor,  Cecilia  has  been  afraid  that  you  were  seri- 
ously interested  in  him!" 

"  That  is  like  Cecilia.  She 's  fine,  and  would  n't 
cause  me  trouble  for  anything;"  and  there  was 
no  doubt  of  Hezekiah's  sincerity. 

"But  now  that  I  see  the  light  and  understand 
all  this,  how  can  we  make  sure  that  Wiggy  will 
be  on  the  spot  at  the  right  moment?  While  we 
sit  here,  he  may  be  the  sixth  man!  There's  my 
friend,  the  eminent  thinker  from  Nebraska;  he's 
likely  to  kneel  before  Cecilia  at  any  moment,  and 
Henderson  and  Shallenberger  are  not  asleep." 

"That's  all  true;  and  you've  got  to  fix  it." 

:<You're  leaving  the  fate  of  Wiggins  and  your 
sister  in  my  hands?  That's  a  heavy  responsibil- 
ity, Hezekiah.  I  might  take  care  of  Wiggy  by 
asking  Cecilia  to  marry  me,  being  careful  to  have 
him  appear  johnny-on-the-spot  when  I  had  been 
duly  declined." 

"Urn,  I  should  n't  take  any  chances  if  I  were 
you,"  she  replied,  feigning  to  look  at  an  imagi- 
nary bird  in  a  tree-top;  "for  if  you  had  counted 

322 


SEVEN  GOLD  REEDS 


wrong  and  were  really  the  seventh  man,  she 
would  have  to  accept  you!" 

"Hezekiah!" 

"Oh,  I  really  did  n't  mean  what  you  thought 
I  meant.  We  don't  need  to  discuss  it  any  more. 
That's  the  ordeal  I've  arranged  for  you,"  she 
answered,  and  set  her  lips  sternly. 

"But,  my  dear  Hezekiah,  by  what  means  can 
this  be  effected?  I  don't  dare  tell  him  the  com- 
bination he 's  playing  against  or  sit  on  him  until 
his  hour  strikes." 

"Certainly  not;  you  must  n't  tell  him  or  any- 
body else.  You  know  the  plan;  but  you're  not 
supposed  to;  and  nobody  must  know  I've  med- 
dled. Meanwhile,  Cecilia  must  expose  herself  to 
proposals  at  all  times.  Aunt  Octavia's  heart 
would  be  broken  if  she  thought  Providence  had 
been  tampered  with.  She  likes  Wiggy  well 
enough,  except  that  his  ancestors  were  all 
Tories  and  he  can't  be  a  son  of  the  Revolution." 

"Too  bad;  it  was  very  careless  of  him  not  to 
do  better  about  his  ancestors;  but  he  can't 
change  that  now." 

"Well,  you've  behaved  with  considerable  in- 
telligence so  far,  and  now  with  your  friend's  fate 
in  your  hands  you  will  need  to  use  great  judg- 
ment and  tact  in  all  that  follows.  I  wash  my 
hands  of  the  whole  business." 

323 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

She  rose  quickly  and  pointed  to  her  coat. 

"  Drop  it  into  the  boat  for  me,  Chimneys.  We 
meet  in  funny  places,  don't  we  ?  Papa  expects 
me  for  luncheon,  and  I  must  row  back  and  get 
my  bicycle.  You?  No,  you  can't  go  along; 
you've  got  a  lot  of  thinking  to  do,  and  you'd 
better  be  doing  it." 


XVIII 

TROUBLE   AT   THE   PRESCOTT   ARMS 

A  FEW  minutes  later,  as  I  swung  along  the  high- 
way toward  the  Prescott  Arms,  I  saw  Cecilia 
Hollister  riding  toward  me  at  a  lively  gallop.  She 
crossed  the  bridge  without  checking  her  horse, 
and  then,  with  a  hurried  glance  over  her  shoul- 
der, she  pointed  with  her  crop  to  a  by-way  that 
led  deviously  into  a  strip  of  forest  and  vanished. 

I  hurried  after  her,  and  found  her  waiting  for 
me  in  a  quiet  lane.  She  had  dismounted  and 
seemed  greatly  disturbed  as  I  addressed  her. 
Her  horse,  a  superb  Estabrook  thoroughbred, 
had  evidently  been  pushed  hard.  Cecilia  had 
taken  off  her  hat,  and  was  giving  a  touch  to  the 
wayward  strands  of  hair  that  had  been  shaken 
loose  in  her  flight.  The  color  glowed  in  her  dark 
cheeks,  and  her  eyes  were  bright  with  excite- 
ment. 

"I  hadn't  expected  to  meet  you;  I  thought 
you  rode  off  with  your  aunt  toward  Mt.  Kisco. " 

"  We  did ;  but  on  our  way  home  Aunt  Octavia 
stopped  to  call  on  a  friend,  and  as  I  did  n't  feel  in 
a  mood  for  visits  this  morning  I  rode  on  alone." 

325 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

She  spoke  further  of  her  aunt's  friend,  of 
whom  I  had  never  heard  before,  to  calm  herself 
before  touching  upon  the  cause  of  her  wild  ride 
or  her  wish  to  speak  to  me.  She  pinned  on  her 
hat  and  drew  on  her  riding-gloves  while  I  helped 
to  make  conversation,  and  soon  regained  her 
composure.  The  haste  with  which  she  had  with- 
drawn into  the  wood,  and  the  imperative  wave 
of  her  crop  by  which  she  had  bidden  me  follow 
her,  indicated  that  something  of  importance  had 
happened  and  that  she  wished  to  confide  in  me. 

"I  was  walking  my  horse  in  the  road  beyond 
Bedford,  just  after  I  left  Aunt  Octavia,  wrhen 
who  should  ride  up  beside  me  but  Mr.  Wiggins. 
He  had  evidently  been  following  me." 

She  expected  me  to  express  surprise;  and  with 
the  information  that  Hezekiah  had  just  imparted 
fresh  in  my  mind  I  dare  say  she  was  not  disap- 
pointed in  the  effect  of  her  words.  I  was  thinking 
rapidly  and  fearfully.  If  my  friend  had  sought 
ner  in  the  highway  and  offered  himself  in  some 
fresh  accession  of  ardor,  he  might  even  now  be  a 
rejected  and  hopeless  man;  but  I  was  unwilling 
to  believe  that  this  had  happened. 

"Hartley  is  fond  of  riding,  and  nothing  could 
be  more  natural  than  for  him  to  have  his  horse 
sent  out  from  town." 

"Oh,  it's  natural  enough,"  she  cried;  "but  I 
326 


TROUBLE  AT  THE  PRESCOTT  ARMS 

was  greatly  taken  aback  when  he  rode  up  beside 
me." 

"An  old  friend  joining  you  in  the  highwray,  on 
a  bright  October  morning !  I  can't  for  the  life  of 
me  see  anything  surprising  or  alarming  in  that, 
Miss  Hollister." 

"But  only  yesterday,  you  remember  I  told  you 
I  had  seen  him  walking  with  my  sister." 

"It's  perfectly  easy  to  talk  to  Hezekiah!  It 
seems  to  me  that  that  only  shows  a  friendly  atti- 
tude toward  all  the  family.  Let  us  deal  with 
facts  if  I  am  to  help  you.  I  understand  perfectly 
that  Hartley  Wiggins  wishes  to  marry  you;  and 
that  being  the  case  I  see  no  reason  why  he 
shouldn't  be  courteous  to  your  sister.  I've 
always  heard  that  it's  the  proper  thing  to  be 
polite  to  the  sisters,  cousins,  and  aunts  of  one's 
prospective  wife.  I  know  of  no  more  delightful 
occupation  than  listening  to  Hezekiah.  Just 
now,  for  an  hour  or  so,  I  have  been  enjoying  her 
conversation  myself.  Nothing  could  be  more 
refreshing  or  stimulating.  She  is  an  unusual 
young  woman,  and  most  amazingly  wise." 

:' You  have  seen  Hezekiah  this  morning!"  she 
exclaimed. 

"  I  have  indeed.  I  hope  I  may  say  that  she  and 
I  are  becoming  good  friends.  I  am  learning  to 
understand  her;  though,  believe  me,  I  don't 

327 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

speak  boastingly.  However,  this  morning  we 
got  on  famously  together.  But  won't  you  con- 
tinue and  tell  me  what  happened  in  the  road 
when  Hartley  rode  up  beside  you?" 

"Oh,  nothing  happened;  really  nothing!  No- 
thing could  have  happened,  for  the  excellent  rea- 
son that  I  ran  away  from  him.  It  was  n't  what  he 
did  or  said ;  it  was  the  fear  of  what  he  might  say ! ' ' 

"If  it  had  been  Mr.  Dick  who  had  joined  you 
in  exactly  the  same  way  in  the  highway,  you 
would  not  have  minded  in  the  least,  Miss  Hollis- 
ter.  Is  n't  that  the  truth? " 

Her  hand  that  had  rested  on  the  pommel  of 
her  saddle  dropped  to  her  side,  and  she  stood 
erect,  her  eyes  wide  with  wonder. 

"What  do  you  mean?"  she  gasped. 

"I  mean  exactly  what  I  have  said;  that  if  it 
had  been  that  strutting  young  philosopher  from 
the  West  you  would  —  well,  you  would  have 
allowed  him  to  say  what  was  in  his  mind,  no 
matter  whether  it  had  been  his  latest  thought  on 
Kantianism,  the  weather,  or  his  admiration  for 
yourself.  Am  I  not  right?" 

"I  wonder,  I  wonder  "  — she  faltered,  drawing 
away,  the  better  to  observe  me. 

:<You  wonder  how  much  I  know!  To  relieve 
your  mind  without  parleying  further,  I  will  say 
to  you  that  I  know  everything." 

328 


TROUBLE  AT  THE  PRESCOTT  ARMS 

"Then  Aunt  Octavia  must  have  told  you;  and 
that  seems  incredible.  It  was  distinctly  under- 
stood "  - 

"Your  aunt  told  me  nothing.  Not  by  words 
did  any  one  tell  me." 

"Not  by  words?"  she  asked,  eyeing  me  won- 
deringly  and  clearly  fearing  that  I  might  be 
playing  some  trick  upon  her.  "Then  can  it  be 
that  Hezekiah  —  but "  no !  Hezekiah  does  n't 
know!" 

"Trust  Hezekiah  for  not  telling  secrets,"  I 
answered  evasively.  "Give  me  credit  for  some 
imagination.  The  air  of  Hopefield  is  stimulating, 
and  in  the  few  days  I  have  spent  in  your  aunt's 
house  I  have  learned  much  that  I  never  dreamed 
of  before.  I  am  not  at  all  the  person  you  greeted 
with  so  much  courtesy  in  the  library  when  I 
arrived  there,  a  chimney-doctor  and  an  igno- 
rant person,  a  few  afternoons  ago,  —  called,  as  I 
thought,  to  prescribe  for  flues  that  proved  to  be 
in  admirable  condition,  but  really  summoned  by 
higher  powers  to  assist  the  fates  in  the  proper 
and  orderly  performance  of  their  duties  to  several 
members  of  the  house  of  Hollister,  —  yourself 
among  them." 

"I  don't  understand  it;  you  are  wholly  inex- 
plicable." 

"  I  am  the  simplest  and  least  guileful  of  beings, 
329 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

I  assure  you.  Yet  I  have  done  some  things  here 
not  in  the  slightest  way  related  to  chimney  doc- 
toring; and  something  else  I  expect  to  do  for 
which  I  believe  you  will  thank  me  through  all 
the  years  of  your  life." 

"Ah,  if  you  really  know,  that  is  possible!"  she 
sighed  wearily.  "  I  am  very  tired  of  it  all.  I  was 
very  foolish  ever  to  have  agreed  to  Aunt  Octa- 
via's  plan.  You  have  seen  those  men,  —  any  one 
of  them  might,  you  know"  -  And  she  shrugged 
her  shoulders  impatiently. 

"Any  one  of  them  might  be  the  seventh  man! 

There,  you  see  I  do  know !   And  I  mean  to  help 

i » 
you! 

She  was  immensely  relieved;  there  was  no 
question  of  that.  Gratitude  shone  in  her  eyes; 
and  then,  as  I  marvelled  at  their  beautiful  dark 
depths,  fear  suddenly  possessed  them.  The 
change  in  her  was  startling.  Several  motors  had 
swept  by  in  the  outer  road  while  we  talked;  they 
were  faintly  visible  through  the  trees;  and  just 
now  we  both  heard  a  horse  and  caught  a  fleet- 
ing glimpse  of  Hartley  Wiggins,  riding  slowly 
with  bowed  head  toward  the  inn.  Cecilia's  horse 
flung  up  his  head,  but  she  clapped  her  hands 
upon  his  nostrils  and  held  them  there  to  prevent 
his  whinnying  until  that  figure  of  despair  had 
passed  out  of  hearing. 

330 


TROUBLE  AT  THE  PRESCOTT  ARMS 

I  was  smitten  with  sorrow  for  Hartley  Wig- 
gins. I  could  put  myself  in  his  place  and  imagine 
his  feelings  as  he  rode  like  a  defeated  general 
back  to  the  inn,  there  to  face  the  other  suitors 
after  the  humiliating  experience  which  Cecilia 
Hollister  had  just  described.  In  his  ignorance  of 
the  cause  of  her  eagerness  to  escape  from  him,  he 
no  doubt  believed  that  he  had  all  unconsciously 
made  himself  intolerable  to  her.  It  was  plain 
that  that  glimpse  of  him  had  touched  Cecilia's 
pity ;  if  I  had  doubted  the  sincerity  of  her  regard 
for  him  before,  I  spurned  the  thought  now.  I 
was  anxious  to  requicken  hope  in  her,  -  -  an 
odd  office  for  me  to  assume  when  in  my  own 
affairs  I  had  always  yielded  my  sword  readily  to 
the  blue  devils!  Yet  during  my  short  stay  at 
Hopefield  I  had  already  found  it  possible  to 
restore  Miss  Octavia's  confidence  in  her  own 
chosen  destiny,  and  in  this  delicate  love-affair 
between  Cecilia  Hollister  and  my  best  friend  I 
proffered  counsel  and  sympathy  with  an  assur- 
ance that  astonished  me. 

"I  have  told  you  enough,  Miss  Hollister,  to 
make  it  clear  that  I  am  in  a  position  to  help  you. 
Believe  me,  I  have  no  other  business  before 
me  but  to  complete  the  service  I  have  under- 
taken." 

"But  there  is  always"  —  she  began,  then 
331 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

ceased  abruptly,  and  lifted  her  head  proudly  — 
"there  is  always  Mr.  Wiggins's  attitude  toward 
my  sister.  Not  for  anything  in  the  world  would  I 
cause  her  the  slightest  unhappiness.  You  must 
see  that,  now  that  you  know  her." 

I  laughed  aloud.  Cecilia's  concern  for  Heze- 
kiah's  happiness  was  so  absurd  that  I  could  not 
restrain  my  mirth  for  a  moment.  Displeasure 
showed  promptly  in  Cecilia's  face. 

"I  am  sorry  if  you  doubt  my  sincerity,  Mr. 
Ames.  I  will  put  the  matter  directly,  to  make 
sure  I  have  not  been  misunderstood  heretofore, 
and  say  that  if  Hezekiah  is  interested  in  Hartley 
Wiggins  and  cares  for  him  in  the  least,  —  you 
know  she  is  young  and  susceptible,  —  I  shall 
take  care  that  he  never  sees  me  again." 

"Pardon  me,  but  maybe  you  don't  quite  un- 
derstand Hezekiah!" 

"Is  it  possible,  then,  that  you  do?"  she  in- 
quired coldly.  "I  imagine  your  opportunities 
for  seeing  her  have  not  been  numerous." 

"Well,  it  is  n't  so  much  a  matter  of  seeing 
her,  when  you've  read  of  her  all  your  life  and 
dreamed  about  her.  She's  in  every  fairy  story 
that  ever  was  written;  she  dances  through  the 
mythologies  of  all  races.  Hers  is  the  kingdom  of 
the  pure  in  heart.  Her  mind  is  like  a  beautiful 
bright  meadow  by  the  sea,  and  her  thoughts  the 

332 


TROUBLE  AT  THE  PRESCOTT  ARMS 

dipping  of  swallow-wings  on  lightly  swaying 
grasses." 

Cecilia's  manner  changed,  and  she  smiled. 

"You  seem  to  have  an  attack  of  something; 
it  looks  serious.  You  have  n't  known  her  long 
enough  to  find  out  so  much!" 

"Longer  than  you  would  believe.  She  and  I 
sat  on  the  shore  together  when  Ulysses  sailed  by ; 
we  were  among  those  present  at  the  sack  of 
Troy;  we  heard  Roland's  ivory  trumpet  at 
Roncesvalles." 

"Such  words  from  you  amaze  me.  I  didn't 
imagine  there  was  so  much  romance  in  chim- 
neys." 

"They  are  full  of  it!  Commend  me  to  an  open 
fire,  with  a  flue  that  knows  its  business,  and  a 
dream  or  two !  I  've  renounced  my  profession.  I 
shall  hereafter  offer  myself  as  adviser  to  persons 
in  need  of  illusions ;  we  'd  all  be  poets  if  we 
dared!" 

I  helped  her  into  the  saddle,  and  she  looked 
down  at  me  with  amusement  in  her  eyes.  My 
praise  of  Hezekiah  had  pleased  her,  and  I  felt, 
as  when  we  journeyed  together  into  town,  her 
kindly,  human  qualities.  The  perplexities  and 
embarrassments  resulting  from  her  compact  with 
her  aunt  had  doubtless  checked  the  natural  flow 
of  her  spirits.  She  talked  on  buoyantly,  though 

333 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

I  was  eager  to  be  off,  to  avert  the  catastrophe 
that  only  her  flight  had  prevented  and  which 
Wiggins  might  at  any  moment  precipitate.  She 
gathered  up  her  reins. 

;'You  are  not  coming  home  for  luncheon? 
Then  I  shall  see  you  at  four.  I  hope  the  hiding- 
place  of  the  ghost  will  prove  interesting.  Aunt 
Octavia  has  built  her  hopes  high,  and  I  may  add 
that  she  has  expressed  the  greatest  admiration 
of  you  to  me.  On  her  ride  this  morning  she 
declared  that  great  things  are  in  store  for  you.  I 
hope  so,  too,  Mr.  Ames." 

She  gave  me  her  hand  and  rode  away,  and 
before  I  had  reached  the  highway  she  was  across 
the  bridge  and  galloping  rapidly  homeward. 

The  inn  was  a  mile  distant,  and  I  set  off  at 
a  brisk  pace,  turning  over  in  my  mind  various 
projects  for  controlling  the  characters  now  upon 
the  stage  in  such  manner  that  Wiggins  should 
become  the  seventh  man.  Cecilia  could  not 
always  run  away  from  him  without  violating  the 
terms  of  her  aunt's  stipulation;  and  it  was 
unlikely  that  she  would  attempt  further  to  guide 
or  thwart  the  pointing  finger  of  fate.  I  relied 
little  upon  any  arrangement  effected  among  the 
suitors  to  stand  together.  Hume  had  already 
found  a  chance  to  speak.  Lord  Arrowood  had 
bitten  the  dust  and  turned  his  face  homeward, 

334 


TROUBLE  AT  THE  PRESCOTT  ARMS 

and  Wiggins  had  been  near  the  brink  only  that 
morning.  It  was  unlikely  that  any  of  the  act- 
ive candidates  remaining  would  stumble  upon 
the  key  to  the  situation,  which  Hezekiah  had 
given  into  my  keeping. 

It  was  well  on  toward  two  o'clock  when  I  ap- 
proached the  inn.  Before  long  the  suitors  would 
depart  for  their  afternoon  call  at  the  Manor, 
which  was  an  established  event  of  the  day.  Just 
as  I  was  about  to  enter  the  gate  I  was  arrested 
by  an  imperious  voice  calling,  and  John  Stewart 
Dick  came  running  toward  me.  He  had  evi- 
dently been  expecting  me,  and  I  paused,  thinking 
him  about  to  renew  his  attack  upon  me.  To  my 
surprise  he  greeted  me  cordially,  even  offering 
his  hand. 

"  You  thought  you  would  come  after  all.  Well, 
I'm  glad  you  did.  I've  decided  that  there 
should  be  peace  between  us." 

In  stature  he  was  the  shortest  of  the  suitors, 
but  what  he  lacked  in  height  was  compensated 
for  by  a  tremendous  dignity.  A  dark  Napo- 
leonic lock  lay  across  his  forehead,  and  his  clear- 
cut  profile  otherwise  suggested  the  Corsican,  the 
resemblance  being,  I  wickedly  assumed,  one  that 
the  philosopher  encouraged. 

"You  have  several  times  addressed  me,  Mr. 
Ames,  in  a  spirit  of  contumely  which  I  have  hesi- 

335 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

tated  to  punish  by  the  chastisement  you  deserve; 
but  I  am  willing  to  let  bygones  be  bygones." 

His  changed  tone  put  me  on  guard,  but  it  was 
impossible  for  me  to  take  him  seriously.  In  spite 
of  the  fact  that  he  was  a  vigorous  muscular 
young  fellow  who  could  have  threshed  me  with- 
out trouble,  I  could  not  resist  the  impulse  he 
always  roused  in  me  to  address  him  in  language 
any  self-respecting  man  would  resent. 

"Chant  the  dies  irce  with  considerable  allegro, 
Plato,  for  I  am  hungry  and  would  fain  pay  for 
food  at  the  adjacent  inn." 

"  I  will  overlook  the  coarseness  of  your  humor," 
he  rejoined  haughtily.  "  My  own  time  is  as 
valuable  as  yours.  You  have  sneered  at  my  at- 
tainments as  a  philosopher;  but  I  will  pass  that 
for  the  present.  I  am  disposed  to  treat  you  mag- 
nanimously. You  have  an  excellent  opinion  of 
yourself;  you  have  come  here  as  an  intruder  upon 
the  rights  of  those  of  us  who  followed  Cecilia 
Hollister  across  Europe  and  home  to  America; 
but  in  spite  of  this  I  wraive  my  rights  in  your 
favor.  I  had  intended  to  offer  myself  to  Miss 
Hollister  this  afternoon,  with  every  hope  of  suc- 
cess, but  I  yield  to  you.  My  only  request  is  that 
you  inform  me  at  once  when  you  have  learned 
her  decision." 

He  clapped  on  his  cap  and  folded  his  arms, 
336 


TROUBLE  AT  THE  PRESCOTT  ARMS 

clearly  satisfied  with  the  expressions  of  surprise 
to  which  my  feelings  betrayed  me.  Could  it  be 
possible  that  he  had  guessed  the  truth,  perhaps 
by  deductive  processes  of  which  I  was  ignorant? 
Whether  he  had  reasoned  from  some  remark 
thrown  out  by  Miss  Octavia  as  to  the  influence 
of  seven  in  the  affairs  of  life  and  her  application 
of  that  fateful  principle  to  the  choice  of  a  hus- 
band for  Cecilia,  I  could  not  guess,  but  assuming 
that  he  had  caught  that  clue,  he  might  readily 
enough  have  managed  the  rest.  Having  crossed 
on  the  steamer  with  the  suitor  host,  a  man  of  his 
intelligence  might  readily  enough  have  kept 
track  of  the  vanquished.  In  any  case  he  had  hit 
upon  me  as  a  likely  victim,  and  on  the  plea  of 
generously  waiting  till  I  had  tried  my  luck  he 
hoped  to  thrust  me  forward  as  the  sixth  suitor, 
and  immediately  thereafter  project  himself  as 
the  inevitable  seventh  man.  The  whole  situation 
was  rendered  perilously  complex  by  the  know- 
ledge that,  unaided,  he  had  possessed  himself 
of  so  much  dangerous  information.  I  must  not, 
however,  allow  him  to  see  what  I  suspected. 

"My  dear  professor,  there's  an  ancient  warn- 
ing against  the  Greeks  bearing  gifts.  You  must 
give  me  time  to  inspect  the  horse." 

"Are  you  questioning  my  good  faith?" 
"Be  it  far  from  me!   I'm  a  good  deal  tickled 
337 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

though  by  your  genial  assumption  that  if  I 
offered  myself  to  this  lady  I  should  be  declined 
with  thanks.  You  have  fretted  yourself  into  a 
state  of  mind  that  bodes  ill  for  American  philoso- 


He  was  again  belligerent.  It  may  have  oc- 
curred to  him  that  I  might  know  as  much  as  he, 
but  at  any  rate  he  grinned;  it  was  a  saturnine 
grin  I  did  not  like. 

"I'm  starving  to  death  at  the  door  of  an  inn, 
and  you  must  excuse  me.  Have  you  seen  Hartley 
Wiggins  lately?" 

"I  have,  indeed!  He's  taken  to  lonely  horse- 
back rides;  he's  off  somewhere  now.  He  has  n't 
the  stamina  for  a  contest  like  this.  One  by  one 
the  autumn  leaves  are  falling,"  he  added,  with 
special  intention,  "and  I  have  given  you  your 
chance." 

"Thanks,  light-bringing  Socrates  from  the 
lands  of  the  Ogalallas!  For  so  much  courtesy  I 
shall  take  pleasure  in  reading  all  your  posthu- 
mous works.  Let  us  cease  being  absurd." 

He  laid  his  hand  on  my  arm  and  lowered  his  tone. 

"Don't  be  an  ass.  If  you  and  I  both  know 
what's  underneath  all  this  mystery  we  might 
come  to  an  understanding." 

"I  don't  follow  you.  Please  make  a  light,  like 
a  man  about  to  have  an  idea." 

338 


TROUBLE  AT  THE  PRESCOTT  ARMS 

"You  mean  that  you  don't  understand?"  He 
eyed  me  doubtfully,  uncertain  whether  I  knew 
or  not. 

"You  have  implied  that  I  am  incapable  of 
understanding;  suppose  we  let  it  go  at  that." 

With  this  I  left  him  and  entered  the  low- 
raftered  office  —  it  was  really  a  pleasant  loung- 
ing-room,  unspoiled  by  the  usual  hotel-office 
paraphernalia.  Dick  had  followed  close  behind, 
and  as  I  paused,  hearing  voices  raised  angrily  in 
the  dining-room  beyond,  I  turned  to  him  for  an 
explanation.  As  the  suitors  had  been  the  only 
guests  of  the  inn  since  their  advent,  having  stipu- 
lated that  the  proprietor  should  exclude  other 
applicants  for  meals  or  lodging,  I  attributed  the 
commotio'n  to  strife  in  their  own  ranks.  Dick 
nodded  sullenly  and  bade  me  keep  on. 

"  You  'd  better  take  a  look  at  those  fellows.  I  Ve 
quit  them  —  quite  out  of  it;  remember  that." 

The  dining-room  door  was  slightly  ajar,  and  I 
flung  it  open. 

Ormsby,  Shallenberger,  Henderson,  Hume, 
Gorse,  and  Arbuthnot  had  been  engaged  with 
cards  at  a  round  table  in  an  alcove,  but  some  dis- 
pute having  apparently  risen,  they  stood  in  their 
places  engaged  in  acrimonious  debate.  As  near 
as  I  could  determine,  some  one  of  them  —  I 
think  it  was  Ormsby  —  wished  to  abandon  the 

339 


game,  which  had  been  undertaken  to  determine 
in  what  order  they  should  be  permitted  to  pay 
visits  to  HopefieM  in  future,  the  calls  en  mane 
having  grown  intolerable.  They  were  so  ab- 
sorbed in  their  argument  that  they  failed  to  note 
my  appearance,  and  I  stood  unobserved  within 
the  door.  The  dialogue  between  the  card- 
players  was  swift  and  hot. 

"It's  no  good,  I  tefl  you!"  cried  Ormsby. 
"There's  no  fairness  in  this  unless  all  take  their 
chances  together!" 

"You  ought  to  have  thought  of  that  before  we 
began.  This  was  your  scheme,  but  because  the 
cards  are  running  against  you,  you  want  to  quit. 
I  say  well  go  on!"  This  from  Henderson,  who 
struck  the  table  sharply  as  he  concluded. 

"You  knew  Wiggins  and  Dick  were  n't  going 
in  when  we  started,  and  you  are  not  likely  to  get 
them  in  now.  Your  anxiety  to  cut  the  rest  of  us 
out  by  any  means  seems  to  have  unsettled  your 
mind,"  shouted  Gorse.  "* I  say  let's  drop  this  and 
stand  to  our  original  agreement  that  no  man 
speak  tOl  the  end  of  the  fortnight-" 

"After  that  whole  scheme  has  been  torn  to 
pieces  fike  paper!  There's  been  nothing  fair  in 
this  business  from  the  start!  We  ought  to  have 
kept  Arrowood  here  and  held  together.  And  we 
ought  to  have  got  rid  of  that  Ames  fellow  —  he 

340 


TROUBLE  AT  THE  PRESOOTT  ARMS 

did  n't  belong  in  this  at  all;  and  instead  of  pro- 
tecting ourselves  against  outsiders  we  have  sat 
here  like  a  lot  of  fools  while  he's  been  making 
himself  agreeable  there  in  the  house  —  right 
there  in  the  house!" 

Ormsby's  voice  rose  to  a  disagreeable  squeak 
as  he  closed  with  this  indictment  of  me.  Hume 
fidgeted  uneasily,  and  met  my  eye  so  warily  that 
I  wondered  whether  he  suspected  that  I  knew  of 
his  breach  of  faith  with  the  other  suitors.  Much 
dallying  with  Scandinavian  literature  had  not 
lightened  his  heart,  and  there  was  nothing  in 
Ibsen  to  which  he  could  refer  his  present  plight. 
Shallenberger  seemed  to  be  the  only  one  of  the 
group  who  had  not  lost  his  senses.  He  was  in 
the  farther  corner  of  the  alcove,  out  of  sight 
from  the  door,  but  I  heard  him  distinctly  as  he 
addressed  the  other  suitors  with  rising  anger. 

"We're  acting  like  cads,  and  cads  of  the  most 
contemptible  sort!  I  only  agreed  to  this  game  to 
satisfy  Ornisby.  The  idea  of  our  sitting  here 
to  draw  cards  to  determine  the  order  in  which 
we  shall  offer  ourselves  to  the  noblest  and  most 
beautiful  woman  in  the  world  would  be  coarse 
and  vulgar  if  it  were  not  so  ridiculous !  The  men 
who  had  their  chance  on  the  steamer  or  after  we 
came  here  —  and  I  don't  pretend  to  know  who 
they  are  —  ought  in  decency  to  have  left  the 

341 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

field.  We  seem  to  have  forgotten  that  we  pretend 
to  be  gentlemen;  or,  far  less  pardonable,  that  we 
pay  court  to  a  lady.  Damn  you  all!  I  refuse  to 
have  anything  more  to  do  with  you,  and  if  you 
try  to  interfere  with  my  affairs  in  any  way  I'll 
smash  your  heads  collectively  or  separately  as 
you  prefer!" 

My  interest  in  this  colloquy  had  led  me  further 
into  the  room,  and  hearing  my  step  they  all 
turned  and  faced  me.  Dick  had  continued  at  my 
side,  but  the  black  looks  they  sent  our  way  were 
intended,  I  thought,  rather  for  me.  Shallen- 
berger,  having  taken  himself  out  of  the  tangle, 
leaned  against  the  wall  and  filled  his  pipe  with 
unconcern.  My  appearance  roused  Ormsby  to  a 
fresh  outburst. 

"You're  responsible!  If  you  had  n't  forced 
yourself  upon  the  ladies  at  Hopefield  there 
would  n't  have  been  any  of  this  trouble!" 

"You're  only  an  impostor  anyhow.  You  went 
to  the  house  to  fix  a  chimney,  and  seem  to  think 
you  're  engaged  to  spend  the  rest  of  your  natural 
life  there!"  protested  Henderson,  twisting  the 
ends  of  his  moustache. 

Then  they  dropped  me  and  assailed  Dick. 

"We'd  like  to  know  what  you  expect  to  gain 
by  dropping  out!  You  got  cold  feet  mighty 
sudden!"  bellowed  Ormsby. 

342 


TROUBLE  AT  THE  PRESCOTT  ARMS 

Gorse  and  Henderson  paid  similar  tributes  to 
the  apostate,  whose  melancholy  grin  only  deep- 
ened. Shallenberger  was  pacing  the  floor  slowly 
and  puffing  his  pipe.  Hume  and  Arbuthnot 
growled  occasionally,  but  shared,  I  thought, 
Shallenberger's  changed  feeling. 

My  silence  had  been  effective  up  to  this  time, 
but  I  was  afraid  to  risk  it  longer.  Dick,  I  imag- 
ined, had  kept  close  to  me  for  fear  of  missing 
any  part  of  the  altercation  he  knew  my  appear- 
ance would  provoke.  The  more  vociferous  suit- 
ors had  howled  themselves  hoarse  and  glared  at 
me  while  I  considered  the  situation.  Henderson 
rallied  for  a  final  shot. 

"A  good  horsewhipping  is  what  you  deserve," 
he  cried,  leveling  his  finger  at  me. 

"Gentlemen,"  I  began,  not  without  inward 
quaking,  "you  have  spoken  loud  naughty  words 
to  me,  and  in  reply  I  must  say  that  your  vocal 
efforts  suggest  only  the  melodies  of  the  braying 
jackass,  and  that  your  manners,  to  speak  mildly, 
are  susceptible  of  considerable  improvement." 

"You  leave  this  neighborhood  within  an 
hour!"  boomed  Ormsby;  and  in  his  efforts  to 
free  himself  from  his  chair  it  fell  backward  with  a 
crash  that  echoed  through  the  long  room. 

"Then  summon  the  coroner  by  telephone,  for 
I  shall  not  be  taken  alive,"  I  answered  quietly, 

343 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

trying  to  recall  my  youthful  delight  in  Porthos, 
Athos,  and  Aramis.  "I  should  dislike  to  change 
the  mild  color-scheme  of  this  pleasant  dining- 
room,  but  as  sure  as  you  lay  hands  on  me,  these 
walls  will  become  a  playground  for  any  cor- 
puscles you  carry  in  your  loathsome  persons." 

"Come  along,  let  us  put  him  out,"  Henderson 
was  saying  in  an  aside  to  Ormsby. 

;'You  were  playing  a  game  here  for  a  stake 
not  yours  for  the  winning,"  I  continued.  "Now 
I  suggest  that  you  shuffle  the  pack,  —  you  three, 
who  are  so  full  of  valor,  —  shuffle  the  pack,  I 
say,  and  draw  for  the  jack  of  clubs.  Whoever  is 
the  fortunate  man  I  shall  take  pleasure  in  pitch- 
ing through  yonder  very  charming  casement." 

"Agreed!"  cried  Henderson,  and  the  three 
flung  themselves  into  their  chairs. 

The  alacrity  of  their  consent  had  unnerved  me 
for  a  moment.  D'Artagnan,  I  was  sure,  would 
have  fought  them  all,  but  I  consoled  myself,  as 
the  cards  rattled  on  the  bare  table,  with  the 
reflection  that,  considering  the  fact  that  I  had 
never  in  my  life  laid  violent  hands  on  a  fellow- 
being,  I  was  conducting  myself  with  admirable 
assurance.  My  weight  has  always  hung  well 
within  one  hundred  and  thirty,  and  physicians 
have  told  me  that  I  was  incapable  of  taking  on 
flesh  or  muscle.  Any  one  of  these  men  could 

344 


TROUBLE  AT  THE  PRESCOTT  ARMS 

easily  toss  me  through  the  window  I  had  indi- 
cated as  a  means  of  their  own  exit. 

Shallenberger  caught  my  eye  and  indicated 
with  a  slight  jerk  of  the  head  that  I  had  better 
run  before  it  was  too  late.  The  painstaking  care 
with  which  Henderson  had  fallen  upon  the  cards 
was  disquieting,  to  put  it  mildly.  Dick  nudged 
me  in  the  ribs  and  offered  to  hold  my  coat. 

"It  will  not  be  necessary,"  I  replied  care- 
lessly. "Tender  your  services  to  the  other 
gentlemen." 

I  felt  the  cold  sweat  gathering  on  my  brow. 
The  three  had  begun  to  draw  cards,  and  I  heard 
them  slap  the  bits  of  pasteboard  smartly  upon 
the  table  as  they  lifted  them  from  the  deck  and, 
finding  the  jack  of  clubs  still  undrawn,  waited 
the  next  turn.  I  had  no  idea  that  a  pack  of 
cards  would  dissolve  so  readily  by  the  drawing 
process,  and  my  memory  ceased  trying  to  recall 
the  adventures  of  D'Artagnan  and  hovered  with 
ominous  persistence  about  the  mad  don  of  La 
Mancha.  I  cannot  say  now  whether  I  stood  my 
ground  out  of  sheer  physical  inability  to  run  or 
from  an  accession  of  courage  due  to  the  remem- 
brance of  my  success  in  detecting  the  Hopefield 
ghost.  In  any  case  I  affected  coolness  as  I  waited, 
even  throwing  out  my  arms  to  "shoot"  my  cuffs 
once  or  twice,  and  yawning. 

345 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

"Come,  gentlemen,  hurry:  let  us  not  waste 
time  here,"  I  exclaimed  impatiently. 

"If  Ormsby  turns  up  the  card  you're  a  dead 
man,"  Dick  was  muttering  gloomily. 

"They're  all  alike  to  me,"  I  replied  loudly. 
"Mr.  Ormsby  is  very  beautiful;  I  shall  hope  not 
to  disfigure  him  permanently;"  but  as- 1  spoke 
my  tongue  was  a  wobbly  dry  clapper  in  my 
mouth. 

I  was  bending  over  now,  watching  the  three 
men  pick  up  the  cards,  and  once,  when  I  misread 
the  jack  of  spades  for  the  jack  of  clubs,  a  shud- 
der passed  over  me.  They  were  down  to  the  last 
card,  and  Ormsby's  hand  was  on  it.  I  recall  that 
a  group  of  steins  on  a  shelf  over  Henderson's 
head  seemed  to  be  dancing  wildly.  Then  I 
looked  at  the  floor  to  steady  myself,  and  hope 
leaped  within  me,  for  there,  by  Ormsby's  foot, — 
a  large  and  heavy  one,  —  lay  an  upturned  card, 
the  jack  of  clubs,  whose  lone  symbol  magnified 
itself  enormously  in  my  amazed  eyes. 

At  this  moment,  I  became  conscious  that  some- 
thing had  occurred  to  distract  the  attention  of 
the  other  men,  who  were  staring  at  some  one  who 
had  entered  noiselessly. 

"Gentlemen,  you  seem  immensely  interested 
in  the  turn  of  those  cards.  I  am  glad  to  have 
arrived  at  the  critical  moment.  Mr.  Ormsby,  will 

346 


TROUBLE  AT  THE  PRESCOTT  ARMS 

you  kindly  lift  the  remaining  card  from  the 
table?" 

Miss  Octavia  stood  beside  me.  She  was 
dressed  in  a  dark  brown  riding-habit;  the  feather 
in  her  fedora  hat  emphasized  her  usual  brisk 
air.  She  swung  her  riding-crop  lightly  in  her 
hand,  and  bent  over  the  table  with  the  deepest 
interest. 

Ormsby  turned  up  the  card.  It  was  the  ten  of 
diamonds. 

"Gentlemen,"  I  cried,  pointing  to  the  card, 
"what  trick  is  this?  Can  it  be  possible  that  you 
have  been  trifling  with  me  in  a  fashion  for  which 
men  have  died  the  world  over  by  sword  and 
pistol!" 

"Kindly  explain,  Arnold,  the  nature  of  this 
difficulty,"  Miss  Octavia  commanded. 

"Simply  this,  Miss  Hollister,  if  I  must  an- 
swer; I  had  offered  to  fight  these  three  gentlemen 
in  order.  It  was  agreed  that  the  man  who  drew 
the  jack  of  clubs  from  the  pack  with  which  they 
had  been  playing  should  be  my  first  victim. 
They  have  shuffled  their  own  cards  and  have 
drawn  the  whole  pack  and  there  is  no  jack  of 
clubs  in  the  pack !  The  only  possible  explanation 
is  one  to  which  I  hesitate  to  apply  the  obvious 
plain  Saxon  terms." 

"It  dropped  out,  that's  all!  You  don't  dare 
347 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

pretend  that  we  threw  out  the  jack  to  avoid 
drawing  it!"  protested  Ormsby,  though  I  saw 
from  the  glances  the  trio  exchanged  that  they 
suspected  one  another.  Ormsby  and  Gorse  bent 


down  to  look  for  the  missing  card,  but  before 
they  found  it  I  stepped  forward  and  drove  my 
fist  upon  the  table  with  all  the  power  I  could  put 
into  the  blow. 

"Stop!"  I  cried.   "I  gave  you  every  oppor- 
tunity to  stand  up  and  take  a  trouncing,  but  I 

348 


TROUBLE  AT  THE  PRESCOTT  ARMS 

need  hardly  say  that  after  this  contemptible 
knavery  I  refuse  to  soil  my  hands  on  you!" 

"Do  you  insinuate"  —  began  Henderson, 
jumping  to  his  feet. 

"Gentlemen,"  said  Miss  Hollister,  lifting  the 
riding-crop,  "it  is  perfectly  clear  to  me  that  Mr. 
Ames  has  gone  as  far  as  any  gentleman  need  go 
in  protecting  his  honor.  I  do  not  offer  myself  as 
an  arbitrator  here,  but  I  advise  my  young  friend 
that  nothing  further  is  required  of  him  in  this 
deplorable  affair." 

With  one  sweep  of  her  crop  she  brushed  to  the 
floor  the  three  piles  of  cards  that  lay  on  the  table 
as  they  had  been  stacked  when  drawn. 

"Arnold,"  she  said,  with  indescribable  dig- 
nity, "will  you  kindly  attend  me  to  my  horse?" 


XIX 

THE   GHOST    OF   ADONIRAM    CALDWELL 

A  STABLE-BOY  held  Miss  Octavia's  horse  at  the 
inn-door.  Her  face,  her  figure,  her  voice  expressed 
outraged  dignity  as  she  tested  the  saddle-girth. 

"You  need  never  tell  me  what  had  happened 
to  provoke  your  wrath,  for  that  is  none  of  my 
affair;  but  I  wish  to  say  that  your  conduct  and 
bearing  won  my  highest  approval.  They  had 
undoubtedly  hidden  the  jack  of  clubs  to  avoid 
the  drubbing  you  would  have  administered  to 
the  unfortunate  man  who  would  have  drawn  that 
card  if  it  had  been  in  the  pack." 

"I  was  not  in  the  slightest  danger  at  any  time, 
Miss  Hollister,"  I  protested.  "  By  one  of  those 
tricks  of  fate  to  which  you  and  I  are  becoming 
so  accustomed,  the  card  had  fallen  to  the  floor 
unnoticed.  If  you  had  not  arrived  so  opportunely 
the  lost  jack  would  have  been  discovered,  the 
cards  reshuffled,  and  very  likely  Mr.  Ormsby 
would  have  been  dusting  the  inn-floor  with  me 
at  this  very  minute." 

"I  refuse  to  believe  any  such  thing,"  declared 
Miss  Octavia,  who  had  mounted  and  continued 

350 


THE  GHOST  OF  ADONIRAM  CALDWELL 

speaking  from  the  saddle.  "Your  perfect  confi- 
dence was  admirable,  and  I  shudder  to  think 
of  the  terrible  punishment  you  would  have  given 
them.  I  do  not  particularly  dislike  Mr.  Ormsby, 
though  the  possibility  of  Cecilia  marrying  him 
has  troubled  me  not  a  little  as  I  have  recalled  the 
unromantic  aspect  of  Utica  as  seen  from  the  car- 
windows  ;  but  it  is  much  to  your  credit  that  you 
defied  them  all  and  brought  them  to  the  fighting- 
point,  and  then,  by  a  stroke  of  cleverness  it 
pleased  me  to  witness,  placed  them  irretrievably 
in  the  wrong." 

If  Miss  Octavia  wished  to  view  my  perform- 
ances in  this  flattering  light  it  seemed  unneces- 
sary and  unkind  to  object.  Now  that  I  was  in  the 
open  again  with  a  whole  skin  I  was  not  averse 
to  the  victor's  crown;  I  would  even  wear  it 
tilted  slightly  over  one  ear.  Birds  have  been 
killed  by  shots  that  missed  the  real  target; 
bunker  sands  are  rich  in  gutta  percha  and  good 
intentions.  I  was  a  fraud,  but  a  cheerful  one. 

"It  was  only  a  pleasant  incident  of  the  day's 
work,  Miss  Hollister.  I'm  going  to  engage  a 
squire  and  take  to  the  open  road  as  soon  as  all 
this  is  over." 

"As  soon  as  all  what  is  over!"  she  demanded, 
eyeing  me  keenly. 

"Oh,  the  work  I've  undertaken  to  do  here.  I 
351 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

flatter  myself  that  I  have  made  some  progress; 
but  within  twenty-four  hours  I  dare  say  that  we 
shall  have  seen  the  end." 

"Your  words  are  not  wholly  luminous,  Ar- 
nold." 

"It  is  much  better  that  it  should  be  so.  You 
have  trusted  me  so  far,  and  I  have  no  intention 
of  failing  you  now.  If  I  say  that  the  crisis  is  near 
at  hand  in  a  certain  matter  that  interests  you 
greatly,  you  will  understand  that  I  am  not 
striking  ignorantly  in  the  dark." 

"If  you  know  what  I  suspect  you  know, 
Arnold  Ames,  you  are  even  shrewder  than  I 
thought  you,  and  you  had  already  taken  a  high 
place  in  my  regard.  The  curtains  of  the  windows 
just  behind  you  have  shown  considerable  agita- 
tion since  we  have  been  speaking,  not  due,  I 
think,  to  the  wind,  as  there  is  no  air  stirring. 
Those  gentlemen  you  have  just  vanquished  are 
timidly  watching  you.  Your  daring  and  prowess 
have  greatly  alarmed  them.  You  may  be  sure 
they  will  think  twice  before  provoking  your 
wrath  again." 

"I  devoutly  hope  they  will,"  I  replied,  glanc- 
ing carelessly  over  my  shoulder,  and  catching  a 
glimpse  of  Henderson  as  he  drew  hastily  out  of 
sight.  "But  will  you  tell  me  just  how  you  came 
to  visit  the  inn  at  this  particular  hour?  " 

352 


THE  GHOST  OF  ADONIRAM  CALDWELL 

"Nothing  could  be  simpler.  I  had  luncheon  at 
the  house  of  a  friend  on  whom  I  called.  Cecilia 
had  left  me  to  continue  her  ride  alone,  and  on  my 
way  home  I  thought  I  would  ride  by  the  Prescott 
Arms  to  see  how  the  guests  were  faring.  You 
see, "  —  she  paused  and  gave  a  twitch  to  her  hat 
to  prolong  my  suspense,  —  "y°u  see,  I  own  the 
Prescott  Arms!" 

With  this  she  rode  away,  and  not  caring  to 
risk  a  further  meeting  with  the  angry  suitors 
from  whom  Miss  Octavia  had  rescued  me  by  so 
narrow  a  margin,  I  set  off  across  the  fields  toward 
Hopefield.  From  the  stile  I  saw  Miss  Octavia  in 
the  highway  half  a  mile  distant,  sending  her 
horse  along  at  a  spirited  canter.  I  reached  the 
house  without  further  adventures,  was  served 
with  a  cold  luncheon  in  my  room,  and  by  the 
time  I  had  changed  my  clothes  Miss  Octavia 
sent  me  word  that  Pepperton  had  arrived. 

Miss  Octavia  and  the  architect  were  convers- 
ing earnestly  when  I  reached  the  library;  and 
from  the  abruptness  with  which  they  ceased  on 
my  entrance  I  imagined  that  I  had  been  the  sub- 
ject of  their  talk.  Pepperton  is  not  only  one  of 
the  finest  architects  America  has  produced,  but 
one  of  the  j oiliest  of  fellows.  He  grasped  my 
hand  cordially  and  pointed  to  the  fireplace. 

"So  you've  at  last  found  one  of  my  jobs  to 
353 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

overhaul,  have  you  !  You  must  n't  let  this  get 
out  on  me,  old  man ;  it  would  shatter  my  reputa- 
tion!" 

"Please  observe  that  the  flue  is  drawing  splen- 
didly now,"  I  answered.  "A  ghost  had  been 
strolling  up  and  down  the  chimney,  but  now 
that  I  have  found  his  lair  he  will  not  trouble  Miss 
Hollister's  fireplaces  again." 

"I  have  waited  for  your  arrival,  Mr.  Pepper- 
ton,  that  we  might  have  the  benefit  of  your 
knowledge  of  the  house  in  following  the  trail  of 
this  ghost  which  Arnold  has  discovered.  But  we 
must  give  Arnold  credit  for  effecting  the  dis- 
covery alone  and  unaided.  I  destroyed  the  plans 
I  obtained  from  your  office  so  that  Arnold  might 
be  fully  tested  as  to  his  capacity  for  managing 
the  most  difficult  situations." 

When  Miss  Octavia  first  referred  to  me  as 
Arnold,  Pepperton  raised  his  brows  a  trifle;  the 
second  time  he  glanced  at  me  laughingly.  He 
seemed  greatly  amused  by  Miss  Octavia's  seri- 
ousness, but  her  amiable  attitude  toward  me 
clearly  puzzled  him. 

"It  takes  a  good  man  to  uncover  a  thing  I  try 
to  hide.  I  said  nothing  to  you,  Miss  Hollister, 
about  the  retention  within  the  walls  of  this  house 
of  parts  of  an  old  one  that  formerly  occupied 
the  site,  for  the  reason  that  I  thought  you  might 

354 


THE  GHOST  OF  ADONIRAM  CALDWELL 

refuse  to  buy  the  estate.  The  gentleman  for 
whom  I  built  Hopefield  was  superstitious,  as 
many  men  of  advanced  years  are,  as  to  the  build- 
ing of  a  new  house,  and  as  the  site  he  chose  is 
one  of  the  finest  in  the  county  he  compelled  me 
to  construct  this  house  —  which  is  the  most  sat- 
isfactory I  have  built  —  in  such  manner  th^t 
enough  of  the  old  should  be  kept  intact  to  soothe 
his  superstitious  soul  with  the  idea  that  he  had 
merely  altered  an  old  house,  not  built  a  new  one. 
As  it  is  the  architect's  business  to  yield  to  such 
caprices  I  obeyed  him  strictly.  So  there  are  two 
rooms  of  an  old  farmhouse  hidden  under  the 
east  wing,  and  it  amused  me,  once  I  had  got  into 
it,  to  preserve  part  of  the  old  stairway,  and  con- 
nect the  retained  chambers  with  the  upper  hall  of 
this  house.  I  had  to  patch  the  original  stair, 
which  was  only  one  flight,  with  discarded  lum- 
ber from  the  old  house,  but  I  flatter  myself  that 
I  managed  it  neatly.  I  even  saved  the  old 
nails  to  avert  the  wrath  of  the  evil  spirits. 
When  the  umbrella  and  dyspepsia-cure  man 
died,  —  for  he  did  die,  as  you  know,  —  I  be- 
lieved the  secret  had  died  with  him,  as  he  was 
very  sensitive  about  his  superstitions.  Most 
of  the  laborers  on  that  part  of  the  job  were 
brought  from  a  long  distance,  and  I  supposed 
they  never  really  knew  just  what  we  were  doing. 

355 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

I  might  have  known,  though,  that  if  a  fellow  as 
clever  as  Ames  got  to  pecking  at  the  house  the 
trick  would  be  discovered.  But  the  chimney, 
old  man,  --  what  on  earth  was  the  matter 
with  it?" 

"It  will  never  happen  again,  and  I  promised 
the  ghost  never  to  tell  how  it  was  done." 

"You  were  quite  right  in  doing  that,  Arnold, — 
a  ghost's  secrets  should  be  sacred ;  but  let  us  now 
proceed  to  the  hidden  chambers,"  said  Miss 
Hollister,  rising  without  further  ado. 

She  summoned  Cecilia,  to  whom  we  explained 
matters  briefly,  and  at  Pepperton's  suggestion 
the  four  of  us  went  directly  to  the  fourth  floor, 
so  that  Miss  Octavia  might  see  the  whole  con- 
trivance in  the  most  effective  manner  possible. 

My  awkward  pen  falters  in  the  attempt  to 
convey  any  idea  of  Miss  Octavia's  delight  in 
Pepperton's  revelation;  she  kept  repeating  her 
admiration  of  his  genius,  and  her  praise  of  my 
cleverness,  which,  to  protect  Hezekiah,  I  was 
forced  to  accept  meekly.  When  in  broad  day- 
light Pepperton  found  and  pressed  the  spring 
in  the  upper  hall  and  the  hidden  door  opened, 
with  a  slowness  that  indicated  a  realization  of 
its  own  dramatic  value,  Miss  Octavia  cried  out 
gleefully,  like  a  child  that  witnesses  the  manipu- 
lation of  a  new  and  wonderful  toy. 

356 


THE  GHOST  OF  ADONIRAM  CALDWELL 

"To  think,  Cecilia,  that  I  should  never  have 
known  of  this  if  that  chimney  had  not  smoked ! " 
—  a  remark  that  caused  Pepperton  to  glance  at 
me  curiously.  He  knew  as  well  as  I  did  that  with 
ordinary  care  every  flue  in  that  house  would  have 
drawn  splendidly.  "  Beyond  any  question,"  Miss 
Octavia  kept  asserting,  "beneath  the  chambers 
of  the  old  house  down  there  we  shall  find  the 
bones  of  that  British  soldier  who  perished  here; 
or  it  is  even  possible  that  a  chest  of  hidden  trea- 
sure is  concealed  beneath  the  floor.  What  do  you 
yourself  suspect,  Mr.  Pepperton?" 

We  were  lighting  candles  preparatory  to  step- 
ping down  into  the  dark  stairway,  and  Pepper- 
ton  was  plainly  hard  put  to  keep  from  laughing. 

"T  assure  you,  Miss  Hollister,  that  I  have  told 
you  all  I  know  about  the  rooms  down  there. 
I  'm  not  very  strong  in  the  ghost-faith ;  and  our 
friend  the  umbrella-man  never  dreamed  of  such 
a  thing,  I  assure  you,  not  even  after  he  had  sat- 
isfied his  fierce  craving  for  pie." 

Miss  Octavia  followed  Pepperton  slowly, 
pausing  frequently  to  hold  her  candle  close  to 
the  stair- walls,  whose  rough  surfaces  confirmed 
all  that  Pepperton  had  said  of  the  preservation 
of  the  old  timbers.  I  had  brought  a  handful 
of  candles,  and  when  we  had  reached  the  dark 
rooms  beneath,  I  lighted  these  and  set  them  up 

357 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

in  the  black  corners  of  the  old  rooms,  in  which, 
Miss  Octavia  remarked,  not  even  the  wall  paper 
had  been  disturbed.  The  exit  into  the  coal-cellar, 
and  concealed  openings  left  for  ventilation  which 
had  escaped  me  before,  were  now  pointed  out  by 
the  architect,  who  kept  laughing  at  the  huge  joke 
of  it  all. 

Cecilia  murmured  her  surprise  repeatedly  as 
we  continued  the  examination;  nothing  quite  like 
this  had  ever  happened  in  the  world  before,  but 
even  as  we  walked  through  those  hidden  rooms 
my  thoughts  reverted  to  the  crisis  so  near  at 
hand  in  her  affairs.  I  had  pledged  myself  to  her 
service,  but  I  saw  no  way  yet  of  assuring  the 
proper  sequence  of  proposals.  The  ultimate 
seventh  must  be  Wiggins;  but  how  could  I  man- 
age the  penultimate  sixth !  Cecilia's  own  appar- 
ent freedom  from  care  on  this  tour  of  inspection 
deepened  my  sense  of  responsibility  to  all  con- 
cerned. Dick  might  by  now  have  persuaded 
some  one  of  the  others  at  the  inn  to  offer  himself, 
thus  closing  the  gap,  and  I  had  determined  that 
the  Westerner  should  not  outwit  me.  It  was 
some  consolation  to  know  that  while  Cecilia 
was  in  these  lost  rooms  in  my  company,  she  was 
safe  from  Dick's  machinations. 

My  thoughts  were,  however,  given  a  new  di- 
rection by  Miss  Octavia.  She  had  been  scrutin- 

358 


THE  GHOST  OF  ADONIRAM  CALDWELL 

izing  the  floor  closely,  asking  us  all  to  bring  our 
candles  to  bear  upon  it,  that  she  might  search 
thoroughly  for  any  signs  of  a  trapdoor  beneath 
which  the  bones  of  the  British  soldier  might 
repose. 

"You  can't  tell  me,"  she  averred  in  her  own 
peculiar  vein,  "that  a  house  as  old  as  this  has 
been  preserved  merely  to  divert  calamity  from  a 
superstitious  gentleman  engaged  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  ribless  umbrellas  and  a  dyspepsia  cure." 

Miss  Octavia  Hollister  was  a  woman  to  be 
humored;  we  all  knew  this;  but  I  realized  with  a 
pang  that  she  was  about  to  be  disappointed.  I 
had  expected  her  to  forget  the  British  soldier 
in  the  perfectly  tangible  joy  of  secret  springs 
and  ghostly  chambers ;  and  if  I  had  foreseen  her 
persistence  in  clinging  to  the  tradition  of  the  ill- 
fated  Briton  I  should  have  taken  the  trouble  to 
hide  a  few  bones  under  the  flooring.  Miss  Octa- 
via had  brought  a  stick  from  the  coal-room,  and 
was  thumping  the  floor  with  it  even  while  Pep- 
perton  tried  to  discourage  her  further  investiga- 
tions. We  were  all  ranged  about  her  with  our 
candles,  and  these,  with  the  others  I  had  thrust 
into  the  corners,  lighted  the  room  well. 

"I'm  afraid  you've  seen  the  whole  of  it,  Miss 
Hollister,"  said  Pepperton.  "The  old  house  was 
built  after  the  Revolution,  I  judge,  but  your 

359 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

British  soldier  was  probably  left  hanging  to  a 
tree  and  never  buried  at  all." 

"Mr.  Pepperton,"  she  replied,  holding  the 
candle  so  close  to  the  architect  that  he  blinked, 
"it  would  be  far  from  me  to  question  your  know- 
ledge of  history,  but  I  should  not  be  at  all  sur- 
prised if  the  builder  of  this  old  house  had  fought 
on  the  seas  with  John  Paul  Jones,  and  had 
buried  beneath  these  walls  the  very  sea-chest 
that  had  been  his  companion  on  many  eventful 
voyages." 

Pepperton  gasped  at  the  absurdity  of  this, 
and  then  suppressed  his  mirth  with  difficulty. 
Cecilia  faintly  expostulated;  but  I  knew  Miss 
Octavia  would  not  be  dissuaded,  and  I  thought  it 
as  well  to  facilitate  her  search  and  be  done  with 
it.  A  sailor  with  rings  in  his  ears  and  a  cutlass 
dangling  at  his  side  might  have  come  home  from 
the  wars  and  established  himself  on  a  farm  in 
Westchester  County  and  even  buried  his  sea- 
chest  under  the  floor  of  his  house,  but  in  all  like- 
lihood he  never  had.  It  was  not  my  office,  how- 
ever, to  advise  Miss  Octavia  Hollister  in  such 
matters.  Pepperton  had  changed  his  tune  and 
seemed  anxious  to  follow  my  lead.  To  him  she 
was  an  eccentric  old  woman,  whose  wealth  alone 
gained  her  indulgence  in  such  preposterous 
obsessions  as  this;  but  my  own  feelings  were 

360  * 


THE  GHOST  OF  ADONIRAM  CALDWELL 

those  of  regret  that  she  must  so  quickly  be  dis- 
illusioned. To  me  she  had  become  an  incarnation 
of  the  play-spirit  that  never  grows  old,  and  there 
may  have  risen  in  me  an  honest  belief  that  what 
this  unusual  woman  sought  she  would  somehow 
find.  Once  or  twice  when  the  uneven  worn  floor- 
ing had  boomed  hollowly  under  her  stick  I  had 
knelt  promptly  to  examine  the  planks,  and  had 
thus  disposed  of  several  false  alarms.  Pepperton 
feigned  interest  for  a  time,  but  was  becoming 
bored.  Cecilia  studied  the  quaint  pattern  of  the 
wall  paper,  which  she  said  ought  to  be  repro- 
duced, as  nothing  in  contemporaneous  designs 
equaled  it. 

Miss  Octavia  had  been  over  the  floors  of  the 
two  rooms  twice,  and  was  about  to  desist.  Her 
less  frequent  appeals  to  the  rest  of  us  for  con- 
firmation of  some  suspected  change  in  the  re- 
sponses to  her  thumping  indicated  disappoint- 
ment. She  made  her  last  stand  in  the  corner  of 
the  smaller  room,  and  as  we  all  stood  holding  our 
lights,  we  were  conscious  that  the  dull  monoto- 
nous thump  suddenly  changed  its  tone.  We  all 
noticed  it  at  the  same  instant,  and  exchanged 
glances  of  surprise. 

"Do  you  hear  that,  gentlemen?" 

She  subdued  her  gratification  in  the  rebuking 
glance  she  gave  us.  Calm  and  unhurried,  she 

361 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

rested  a  moment  on  her  stick,  with  the  candle's 
soft  glow  about  her,  a  smile  ineffably  sweet  on 
her  face. 

"The  timbers  may  have  rotted  away  under- 
neath. We  did  n't  raise  these  floors,"  said  Pep- 
perton;  but  we  both  dropped  to  our  knees  and 
brought  all  the  candle-light  to  bear  upon  the 
flooring.  Dust  and  mortar,  shaken  loose  in  the 
destruction  of  the  house,  filled  the  cracks.  Pep- 
perton,  deeply  absorbed,  continued  to  sound  the 
corner  with  his  knuckles. 

"It  really  looks  as  though  these  boards  had 
been  cut  for  some  purpose,"  he  said,  whipping 
out  his  knife. 

I  ran  to  the  kindling-room  and  found  a  hatchet, 
and  when  I  returned  he  had  dug  the  dirt  out  of 
the  edges  of  the  floor-planks.  Silence  held  us  all 
as  I  set  to  prying  up  the  boards. 

"I  beg  of  you  to  exercise  the  greatest 
care,  gentlemen.  If  bones  are  interred  here  we 
must  do  them  no  sacrilege,"  warned  Miss  Oc- 
tavia. 

By  this  time  we  all,  I  think,  began  to  believe 
that  the  flooring  might  really  have  been  cut  in 
this  corner  of  the  old  room  to  permit  the  hid- 
ing of  something.  The  room  had  grown  hot, 
and  Cecilia  opened  the  cellar-windows  outside 
to  admit  air.  The  old  planks  clung  stubbornly 

362 


THE  GHOST  OF  ADONIRAM  CALDWELL 

their  joists,  but  after  I  had  loosened  one,  the 
others  came  up  quickly  and  the  smell  of  dry 
earth  filled  the  room.  Pepperton  had,  at  Miss 
Octavia's  direction,  brought  a  chisel  and  crow- 
bar from  the  tool-room  in  the  cellar,  and  he  stood 
ready  with  these  when  I  tore  up  the  last  board, 
disclosing  an  oblong  space  about  five  feet  long 
and  slightly  over  three  feet  wide.  It  was  possible 
that  this  was  the  whole  story,  but  Pepperton 
began  driving  the  bar  vigorously  into  the  close- 
packed  soil.  As  he  loosened  the  earth  I  scooped 
it  out,  and  we  soon  had  penetrated  about  six 
inches  beneath  the  surface. 

We  were  all  excited  now.  The  edge  of  the  bar 
struck  repeatedly  against  something  that  re- 
sisted sharply.  It  might  have  been  a  root,  but 
when  Pepperton  shifted  the  point  of  attack  the 
same  booming  sound  answered  to  the  prodding. 
Pepperton  now  thought  it  might  be  only  an 
empty  cask  or  a  box  of  no  interest  whatever;  but 
Miss  Octavia,  hovering  close  with  a  candle,  en- 
couraged us  to  go  on,  and  was  fertile  in  sugges- 
tions as  to  the  most  expeditious  manner  of  resur- 
recting whatever  might  be  buried  there.  We 
were  pretty  well  satisfied  from  the  soundings 
that  the  hidden  object  was  somewhat  shorter 
and  narrower  than  the  hole  itself. 

"Quite  naturally  so,"  observed  Miss  Octavia, 
363 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

"for  a  man  who  buries  a  treasure  has  to  allow 
himself  room  for  getting  at  it." 

We  worked  on  silently,  Pepperton  loosening 
the  soil  with  the  bar  while  I  shoveled  it  out.  In 
half  an  hour  we  had  revealed  a  long  flat  wooden 
surface,  which  to  our  anxious  imaginations  was 
the  lid  of  some  sort  of  box. 

"It's  sound  red  cedar,"  pronounced  Pepper- 
ton,  examining  the  wood  where  the  tools  had 
splintered  it. 

"Of  course  it's  cedar,"  replied  Miss  Octavia, 
bending  down  to  it.  "I  knew  it  would  be  cedar. 
It  always  is!" 

We  paused  to  laugh  at  her  confident  tone,  and 
Cecilia  suggested  that  as  there  was  still  a  good 
deal  to  do  before  we  could  free  the  box,  we 
should  send  for  some  of  the  servants  to  complete 
the  work. 

"I  would  n't  take  a  thousand  dollars  for  my 
chance  at  this,"  Pepperton  answered;  and  we 
fell  to  again. 

It  must  have  been  nearly  six  o'clock  when  we 
dragged  out  into  that  candle-lighted  chamber  a 
stout,  well-fashioned  box.  The  earth  clung  to  its 
sides  jealously,  and  it  was  bound  with  strips  of 
brass  that  shone  brightly  where  the  scraping 
of  our  tools  had  burnished  it.  We  pried  off  the 
heavy  lock  with  a  good  deal  of  difficulty,  and 

364 


THE  GHOST  OF  ADONIRAM  CALDWELL 

when  it  was  free  Miss  Octavia  asserted  her  right 
to  the  treasure-trove  with  much  calmness. 

"I  should  never  forgive  myself  if  I  allowed 
this  opportunity  to  pass ;  you  must  permit  me  to 
have  the  first  look." 

"Certainly,  Miss  Hollister;  if  it  had  n't  been 
for  you  this  chest  would  have  remained  hidden 
to  the  end  of  all  time,"  Pepperton  replied. 

We  gathered  close  about  her  as  she  knelt 
beside  the  box.  My  hand  shook  as  I  held  my 
candle,  and  I  think  Miss  Octavia  was  the  only 
one  in  the  room  who  showed  no  nervousness. 
Cecilia  sighed  deeply  several  times,  and  Pepper- 
ton  mopped  his  face  with  his  handkerchief.  The 
lid  did  not  yield  as  readily  as  we  had  expected, 
and  it  was  necessary  to  resort  to  the  hatchet  and 
chisel  again;  but  we  were  careful  that  it  should 
be  Miss  Octavia's  hand  that  finally  raised  the  lid. 

We  all  exclaimed  in  various  keys  as  the  light 
fell  upon  the  open  chest.  The  musty  odor  of  old 
garments  greeted  us  at  once.  The  box  was  well 
filled,  and  its  contents  were  neatly  arranged. 
Miss  Octavia  first  lifted  out  the  remnants  of  a 
military  uniform  that  lay  on  top. 

"It's  his  ragged  regimentals!"  cried  Cecilia, 
as  we  unfolded  an  officer's  coat  of  blue  and  buff, 
sadly  decrepit  and  faded  ; "  and  he  was  not  a 
British  soldier  at  all,  but  an  American  patriot." 

365 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

Time  and  service  had  dealt  even  more  harshly 
with  an  American  flag  on  which  the  thirteen  white 
stars  floated  dimly  on  the  dull  blue  field.  It 


had  been  bound  tightly  about  a  packet  of  papers 
which  Miss  Octavia  asked  Pepperton  to  examine. 
'These  are  commissions  appointing  a  certain 
Adoniram  Caldwell  to  various  positions  in  the 
Continental  Army.  Adoniram  had  the  right  stuff 

366 


THE  GHOST  OF  ADONIRAM  CALDWELL 

in  him;  here  he's  discharged  as  a  private  to  be- 
come an  ensign;  rose  from  ensign  to  colonel,  and 
seems  to  have  been  in  most  of  the  big  doings.  *  For 
gallantry  in  the  recent  engagement  at  Stony  Point, 
on  recommendation  of  General  Anthony  Wayne ' 
-  by  Jove,  that  does  rather  carry  you  back!" 

Half  a  dozen  of  these  documents  traced  Ado- 
niram  Caldwell's  career  to  the  end  of  the  Revo- 
lution and  his  retirement  from  the  military 
service  with  the  rank  of  colonel.  A  sealed  letter 
attached  to  these  commissions  next  held  our 
attention.  The  ends  were  dovetailed  in  the  old 
style  before  the  day  of  envelopes,  and  evidently 
care  had  been  taken  in  folding  and  sealing  it.  The 
superscription,  in  a  round  bold  hand,  without 
flourishes,  read:  "To  Whom  It  May  Concern." 

"I  suppose  it  concerns  us  as  much  as  any- 
body," remarked  Miss  Octavia.  "What  do  you 
say,  gentlemen;  shall  we  open  it?" 

We  all  demanded  breathlessly  that  she  break 
the  seal,  and  we  were  soon  bending  over  her  with 
our  lights.  The  ink  had  blurred  and  in  spots  rust 
had  obliterated  the  writing:  — 

"I,  Roger  Hartley  Wiggins,  sometime  known 
as  Adoniram  Caldwell "  — 

"Hartley  Wiggins!"  we  gasped;  and  I  felt 
Cecilia's  hand  clasp  my  arm. 

367 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

Miss  Octavia  continued  reading,  and  as  she 
was  obliged  to  pause  often  and  refer  illegible 
lines  to  the  rest  of  us,  I  have  copied  the  following 
from  the  letter  itself,  with  only  slight  changes 
of  punctuation  and  spelling. 

"I,  Roger  Hartley  Wiggins,  sometime  known 
as  Adoniram  C  aid  well,  having  now  resumed  my 
proper  name,  and  being  about  to  marry,  and 
having  begun  the  construction  of  a  habitation 
for  myself  wherein  to  end  my  days,  truthfully 
set  forth  these  matters: 

"My  father,  Hiram  Wiggins  of  Rhode  Island, 
having  supported  the  royalist  cause  in  our  late 
war  for  Independence,  and  angered  by  my 
friendliness  to  the  patriots,  and  he,  with  .  .  . 
brothers  and  sister  having  returned  to  England 
after  the  evacuation  of  Boston,  I  joined  the 
Continental  troops  under  General  Putnam  on 
Long  Island,  in  July,  1776,  serving  in  various 
commands  thereafter,  to  the  best  of  my  ability, 
to  the  end.  .  .  .  My  father  has  now  returned  to 
Rhode  Island,  and  has,  I  learn,  been  making 
inquiries  touching  my  whereabouts  and  condi- 
tion, so  that  I  have  every  hope  that  we  may  be- 
come reconciled.  Yet  as  my  services  to  the  Coun- 
try were  against  his  wishes  and  caused  so  much 
harshness  and  heartache,  and  being  now  come 

368 


THE  GHOST  OF  ADONIRAM  CALDWELL 

into  a  part  of  the  country  where  I  am  unknown, 
I  am  decided  to  resume  my  rightful  name,  that 
my  wife  and  children  may  bear  it  and  in  the  hope 
that  I  may  myself  yet  add  to  it  some  honor.  .  .  . 
"Nor  shall  my  wife  or  any  children  that  may  be 
born  to  me,  know  from  me  .  .  .  (badly  blurred.} 
Yet  not  caring  to  destroy  my  sword,  which  I 
bore  with  some  credit,  nor  these  testimonials  of 
respect  and  confidence  I  received  as  Adoniram 
Caldwell  at  various  times  and  from  various  per- 
sonages of  renown,  both  civilians  and  in  the 
military  service,  I  place  them  under  my  house 
now  building,  where  I  hope  in  God's  care  to  end 
my  days  in  peace.  I  would  in  like  case  make  like 
choice  again." 

Ten  lines  following  this  were  wholly  illegible, 
but  just  before  the  date  (June  17, 1789),  and  the 
signature,  which  was  written  large,  was  this :  — 

"God  preserve  these  American  states  that 
they  endure  in  unity  and  concord  forever!" 

We  had  all  been  moved  by  the  reading  of  this 
long-lost  letter,  and  Miss  Octavia's  voice  had  fal- 
tered several  times.  As  I  turned  to  Cecilia  once 
or  twice  during  the  recital  of  the  dead  patriot's 
message,  I  saw  tears  brimming  her  eyes. 

"Mr.  Wiggins  once  told  me  that  his  great- 
369 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

grandfather  had  lived  somewhere  in  Westchester 
County,  but  I  fancy  he  had  no  idea  that  Hope- 
field  was  the  identical  spot,"  remarked  Miss 
Octavia.  "It  seems  incredible,  and  yet  I  dare 
say  the  hand  of  fate  is  in  it." 

"Oh,  it's  so  wonderful;  so  beyond  belief!" 
cried  Cecilia,  reverently  folding  the  letter,  which, 
I  observed,  she  retained  in  her  own  hands. 

"It's  wonderful,"  added  Miss  Octavia 
promptly,  taking  the  sword,  which  Pepperton 
had  with  difficulty  drawn  from  its  battered 
scabbard,  "that  even  a  discerning  woman  like 
me  could  have  been  so  mistaken.  I  recall  with 
humility  that  last  Fourth  of  July,  at  Berlin,  I 
reprimanded  Mr.  Wiggins  severely  because  his 
family  had  not  been  represented  in  the  war  for 
American  Independence.  By  the  irony  of  cir- 
cumstances it  becomes  my  duty  to  present  to  him 
the  very  sword  that  his  admirable  great-grand- 
father bore  in  that  momentous  struggle.  I  shall, 
with  his  permission,  place  a  bronze  tablet  on  the 
outer  wall  of  this  house  to  preserve  the  patriot's 
memory." 

Several  copies  of  New  York  newspapers,  half 
a  dozen  French  gold  coins,  the  miniature  of  a 
woman's  face,  which  we  assumed  to  be  that  of 
Roger  Wiggins's  mother  or  sister,  were  briefly  ex- 
amined; then  by  Miss  Octavia's  orders  we  care- 

370 


THE  GHOST  OF  ADONIRAM  CALDWELL 

fully  returned  everything  to  the  chest.  Several 
packets  of  letters  we  did  not  open. 

"Arnold,"  she  said  when  we  had  closed  the 
chest,  "will  you  and  Mr.  Pepperton  kindly  carry 
that  box  to  my  room?  No  servant's  hand  shall 
touch  it;  and  I  shall  myself  give  it  to  Mr.  Wig- 
gins at  the  earliest  opportunity." 

We  had  lost  track  of  time  in  those  hidden 
rooms,  preserved  by  the  whim  of  one  man  that 
the  secret  of  another  might  be  discovered,  and 
found  with  surprise,  after  the  chest  had  been  car- 
ried to  Miss  Octavia's  apartments,  that  it  was 
after  seven  o'clock.  We  had  been  in  the  hidden 
rooms  for  more  than  three  hours. 

"We  shall  have  much  to  talk  about  to-night, 
and  I  fancy  we  are  all  a  good  deal  shaken.  It's 
not  often  we  receive  a  letter  from  a  dead  man,  so 
we  shall  admit  no  callers  to-night  unless,  indeed, 
Mr.  Wiggins  should  chance  to  come,"  announced 
Miss  Octavia.  "The  next  time  Hartley  Wiggins 
visits  this  house  he  shall  come  as  a  conquering 
hero." 

"I  hope  so,"  replied  Cecilia  brokenly. 

We  were  still  at  dinner  when  the  cards  of  Dick 
and  the  other  suitors  I  had  last  seen  at  the 
Fresco tt  Arms  were  brought  in;  but  Wiggins 
made  no  sign,  and  I  wondered. 


XX 

HEZEKIAH    PARTITIONS   THE    KINGDOM 

THE  man  who  looked  after  my  needs  handed 
me  a  note  the  next  morning  which  added  fresh 
hazards  to  Cecilia's  already  perilous  plight. 

"Left  with  the  gardener  before  six  o'clock  by 
a  boy  from  the  village.  Said  it  was  most  confi- 
dential, sir." 

I  waited  till  he  had  left  the  room  before  open- 
ing it.  A  square  white  envelope  addressed  to 
Arnold  Ames,  Esq.,  Hopefield  Manor,  told  me 
nothing,  and  the  handwriting  was  inscrutable. 
It  slanted  slightly  upward ;  the  small  letters  were 
half-printed  and  quaintly  shaded.  If  a  woman's, 
she  had  scorned  the  rail-fence  models  of  the 
boarding-schools;  if  a  man's  —  but  I  knew  its 
gender  well  enough !  The  white  note  sheet  within 
was  unadorned,  and  the  same  pen  had  traced 
compactly,  within  the  widest  possible  margins, 
the  following:  — 

GOOSEBERRY  BUNGALOW, 
Before  Breakfast. 

DEAR  CHIMNEYS:  —  Pep  stopped  here  yester- 
day to  see  B.  H.  He  and  C.  old  pals.  Watch 
him.  Where's  Wig?  H.  H. 

372 


HEZEKIAH  PARTITIONS  THE  KINGDOM 

The  initials  were  superfluous,  and  yet  the 
sight  of  them  pleased  me  mightily.  In  her 
semi-printing  she  curved  the  pillars  of  the  H's 
like  parentheses,  so  that  they  bore  an  amusing 
resemblance  to  four  men  striding  forward 
against  a  storm.  The  report  of  a  chief  of  scouts 
smuggled  through  the  enemy's  lines  could  not 
have  improved  on  her  billet  for  succinctness,  and 
the  information  conveyed  was  startling  enough. 
We  had  been  dealing  with  a  company  of  suitors 
outside  the  barricade;  now  came  warning  of  the 
presence  of  a  strange  knight  within  the  gates  who 
greatly  multiplied  the  perils  of  the  situation. 
The  compact  between  the  suitors  at  the  inn  was 
a  thing  of  the  past,  and  I  now  expected  them 
to  exercise  all  the  ingenuity  of  which  desperate 
lovers  are  capable  in  pressing  their  claims.  The 
fact  that  both  Wiggins  and  Pepperton  were  old 
friends  of  mine  did  not  make  my  task  easier.  I 
not  only  felt  it  incumbent  on  me  to  prevent 
Dick,  the  holder  of  the  clue,  from  taking  advan- 
tage of  it,  but  knowing  Cecilia's  own  attitude  of 
mind  and  heart  toward  Wiggins  I  wished  to  save 
Pepperton  the  pain  of  rejection  if  it  could  be 
done. 

But  what  did  Hezekiah  mean  by  the  question 
with  which  she  ended  her  note?  If  Wiggins, 
smarting  under  Cecilia's  treatment  of  him  the 

373 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

day  before,  had  quit  the  field,  here  was  a  pretty 
how-d  'ye-do  t  Miss  Octavia's  refusal  to  counte- 
nance telephones  made  it  necessary  for  me  to 
leave  Hopefield  to  learn  what  had  become  of 
Wiggins,  and  I  realized  that  I  must  act  promptly 
if  I  saved  the  day  for  him.  His  conduct  first  and 
last  had  been  spiritless,  and  I  was  out  of  pa- 
tience with  him.  It  seemed  impossible  to  formu- 
late any  plan  amidst  these  multiplying  uncer- 
tainties. If  Wiggins  had  decamped,  Dick  knew 
it  and  would  lay  his  plans  accordingly.  I  felt 
that  it  was  base  ingratitude  on  Wiggins's  part  to 
ask  me  to  watch  his  interests  while  he  went 
roaming  indifferently  over  the  country.  One  or 
two  consoling  reflections  remained,  however: 
Dick  believed  me  to  be  a  suitor  for  Cecilia's 
hand,  and  this  doubtless  caused  him  considerable 
uneasiness;  and  he  did  not  know  that  Pepperton, 
whose  acquaintance  with  Cecilia  antedated  the 
European  flight,  had  to  be  reckoned  with.  I 
wished  Pepperton  had  kept  out  of  it. 

Breakfast  that  morning  was  interminably 
long.  Miss  Octavia  was  never  more  thoroughly 
amusing,  never  more  drolly  inadvertent.  She 
attacked  Pepperton  for  all  the  evils  in  American 
architecture,  and  in  particular  took  him  to  task 
for  some  house  he  had  built  at  Newport  which 
she  pronounced  the  most  hideous  pile  of  marble 

374 


HEZEKIAH  PARTITIONS  THE  KINGDOM 

on  American  soil.  From  her  packet  of  news- 
paper-cuttings she  drew  a  letter  her  brother  Bass- 
ford  had  written  to  the  "Sun,"  —  the  writing 
of  letters  to  newspapers  was,  it  seemed,  one  of 
his  weaknesses,  —  protesting  against  the  quality 
of  the  music  ground  from  the  New  York  hurdy- 
gurdies.  The  selections  were  execrable;  the  fierce 
tempo  at  which  the  instruments  were  driven  had 
caused  an  alarming  increase  in  insanity,  in  proof 
of  which  he  adduced  statistics.  He  demanded 
municipal  censorship,  and  volunteered  to  sit  on 
the  proposed  commission  of  critics  without  pay. 

"That  is  just  like  brother  Bassford!  When  I 
begin  speaking  to  him  again  I  shall  point  out  the 
error  of  his  ways.  I  always  miss  the  hurdy- 
gurdies  when  I  'm  in  the  country,  and  I  believe 
I  shall  buy  one  and  have  it  play  me  to  sleep  at 
night.  The  faster  the  tempo  the  sweeter  the 
slumber.  I  should  certainly  do  so,"  she  con- 
cluded, with  that  indefinable  smile  that  always 
left  one  wondering,  "if  it  were  not  that  my 
new  laundress  is  a  graduate  of  the  Sandusky- 
Ottumwa  Conservatory  of  Music,  and  I  fear  the 
toreador's  song  on  wheels  might  be  painful  to 
one  of  her  taste  and  temperament." 

When  we  left  the  table  at  about  half -past  ten 
Miss  Octavia  insisted  that  we  must  visit  the 
kennels.  A  friend  had  just  sent  her  a  fine  Aire- 

375 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

dale,  and  she  wished  to  make  sure  the  kennel- 
master  was  treating  the  dog  properly.  Later  we 
were  all  to  ride. 

I  made  haste  to  excuse  myself,  saying  that 
personal  matters  required  attention. 

"Certainly,  Arnold,  you  shall  do  as  you  like. 
Mr.  Pepperton  is  a  difficult  bird  to  catch,  so 
we  hope  for  you  at  luncheon,  and  of  course  we 
expect  you  for  dinner." 

Pepperton  looked  at  me  inquiringly.  I  judged 
that  he  had  known  Miss  Octavia  a  good  many 
years;  the  tone  of  their  intercourse  was  intimate; 
and  yet  he  plainly  was  at  a  loss  to  understand 
just  how  I  came  to  be  so  thoroughly  established 
in  her  good  graces.  I  confess  that  as  I  glance 
back  over  these  pages  it  looks  odd  to  me! 

As  I  paced  the  hall  waiting  for  a  horse  to  be 
saddled,  Pepperton  led  me  out  on  the  terrace 
above  the  garden. 

"I'm  bursting  with  a  great  secret,  old  man. 
I'm  going  to  be  married." 

"What!" 

"I'm  going  to  be  married." 

I  grasped  a  chair  to  support  myself.  This  was 
almost  too  much.  Could  it  be  possible  that 
Hezekiah  had  miscalculated  the  list  of  rejections 
in  the  silver-bound  book,  or  that  Cecilia  herself 
had  been  deceived?  Pepperton  misread  my  agi- 

376 


HEZEKIAH  PARTITIONS  THE  KINGDOM 

tation,  and  with  a  hearty  laugh  clapped  me  on 
the  shoulder. 

"Oh,  I'm  not  intruding  on  your  preserves,  old 
man!  Cecilia  is  the  second  finest  girl  in  the 
world,  that's  all.  I'm  engaged  to  Miss  Gaylord, 
of  Stockbridge.  I  'm  telling  a  few  old  friends,  in 
advance  of  the  formal  announcement  to  be  made 
next  week  at  a  dance  the  Gay  lords  are  giving." 

I  crushed  his  hand  in  both  my  own,  and  seeing 
that  he  misconstrued  the  fervor  of  my  emotion  I 
hastened  to  set  myself  right. 

"You're  a  lucky  dog  as  usual,  Pep.  But  you 
don't  understand  about  Cecilia  Hollister.  It's 
not  I ;  I  'm  not  in  the  running  at  all ;  but  Hartley 
Wiggins  is!  I'm  here  trying  to  help  him  score." 

"What's  this?  You're  here  to  represent 
Wiggy?" 

"Well,  he  did  n't  exactly  send  me  here,  but 
when  I  came  I  found  that  Wiggy  was  n't  playing 
the  game  with  quite  the  necessary  zipology. 
There 's  more  required  than  appears,  —  a  little 
of  the  dash  and  snap  of  the  old  adventures, — 
the  ready  tongue,  the  eager,  thirsty  sword!" 

Pepperton  pursed  his  lips  and  looked  me  over 
carefully  with  a  twinkle  in  his  eye. 

:'You  are  contributing  those  elements!  You 
are  octaviaized,  is  that  it?  "  Pepperton  laughed 
until  the  tears  came. 

377 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

"I  prefer  hollisterized  as  the  broader  term. 
Brother  Bassford  has  it  too,  and  there's  always 
Hezekiah!" 

"Ah!  Hezekiah  the  unpredictable!  I  knew 
there  was  a  skirt  fluttering  somewhere.  I  saw  her 
yesterday;  stopped  to  see  Bassford,  who's  a  good 
old  chap.  Hezekiah  of  the  teasing  eyes  was  white- 
washing the  chicken-coop,  and  Michael  Angelo 
could  n't  have  done  it  better." 

"Pep,"  I  said,  lowering  my  voice,  "if  you  love 
me,  keep  close  to  Cecilia  all  day.  You're  an 
engaged  man  and  in  practice.  Give  an  imitation 
of  devotion.  Keep  her  out  of  doors;  keep  male 
human  beings  away  from  her.  Don't  fail  me  in 
this.  I  've  got  to  pull  off  the  greatest  coup  of  my 
life  to-day.  There's  a  band  of  outlaws  hanging 
round  here  who  will  propose  to  Cecilia  the  first 
chance  they  get  —  and  they  must  NOT.  Wig  's 
got  to  speak  before  night  or  lose  out  forever. 
No;  not  a  word  of  explanation;  you've  got  to 
take  my  word  for  it." 

"I'll  be  the  goat;  go  ahead,  but  build  a  fire 
under  Wiggins;  I  can't  stay  here  forever." 

Pepperton's  engagement  smoothed  out  one 
wrinkle,  and  I  felt  sure  that  I  could  trust  him  as 
an  ally.  The  groom  was  holding  my  horse  in  the 
porte-cochere,  and  I  mounted  and  rode  away  to 
the  Prescott  Arms. 

378 


HEZEKIAH  PARTITIONS  THE  KINGDOM 

I  found  Ormsby,  Shallenberger,  Arbuthnot, 
Henderson,  Hume,  and  Gorse  glumly  sitting  in 
a  semicircle  before  the  hall  fireplace.  Deepest 
gloom  pervaded  the  inn.  I  have  rarely  seen  mel- 
ancholy so  darkly  stamped  upon  the  human 
countenance.  They  turned  indifferently  and 
glared  as  they  recognized  me.  Shallenberger 
alone  rose  and  greeted  me. 

"I  hope  there  is  no  bad  news,"  he  said  chok- 
ingly. 

"Bad  news?" 

"I  mean  Miss  Hollister  —  Miss  Cecilia.  We 
were  all  deeply  grieved  last  night  to  hear  of  her 
sudden  illness;  there's  always  something  so  ter- 
rible in  the  very  name  of  diphtheria." 

My  wits  had  been  so  sharpened  by  my  late 
adventures  that  I  readily  accounted  for  these 
false  tidings.  Dick  was  absent;  Dick  alone 
would  have  been  equal  to  this  diabolical  plot 
for  keeping  his  rival  suitors  away  from  Hope- 
field.  The  despair  in  those  faces  taxed  my  grav- 
ity severely. 

"It  is  extremely  sad,  but  the  first  diagnosis 
was  erroneous,"  I  answered.  "I  think  it  more 
likely  to  prove  to  be  chicken-pox  when  the  truth 
is  known." 

"Not  diphtheria?" 

"No  immediate  danger  of  diphtheria,  I  assure 
379 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

you,"  I  replied;  "though  of  course,  with  winter 
coming  on  and  all  that,  one  must  be  prepared  for 
the  worst." 

While  he  repeated  this  to  the  others,  I  sought 
the  clerk,  who  promptly  handed  me  a  note  which 
Wiggins  had  left  late  the  previous  afternoon,  to  be 
delivered  in  case  I  called.  He  had  gone  to  spend 
a  day  or  two  with  Orton,  the  playwright,  who 
was  at  his  country  house,  in  the  hills  beyond  Mt. 
Kisco,  rehearsing  a  new  piece,  in  which  a  friend 
of  Hartley's  was  to  star.  I  gained  the  telephone- 
booth  in  one  jump,  and  in  five  minutes  I  was 
bawling  wildly  into  Orton's  ear.  I  had  known 
him  well  in  the  Hare  and  Tortoise,  and  he  an- 
swered my  demand  for  Wiggins  with  the  heart- 
breaking news  that  Hartley  had  ridden  off  with 
some  other  guests  in  the  house  —  Orton  did  n't 
know  where. 

"I  threw  them  out;  I've  got  to  re  write  my 
third  act;  I  don't  care  whether  they  ever  come 
back,"  boomed  Orton's  voice. 

"If  you  don't  send  Wiggins  back  to  me  at 
Hopefield  as  fast  as  he  can  get  there,  my  third 
act  is  ruined." 

"What?" 

"Tell  WTiggins  to  come  back  on  the  run;  tell 
him  the  world 's  coming  to  an  end  any  minute." 

"I'll  be  glad  to  get  rid  of  him,"  snapped 
380 


HEZEKIAH  PARTITIONS  THE  KINGDOM 

Orton,  in  the  harried  tone  of  a  man  whose  third 
act  has  wilted  in  rehearsal. 

As  I  came  perspiring  out  of  the  telephone- 
booth  I  found  the  suitors  engaged  in  eager  but 
subdued  debate  by  the  hearth.  They  could 
hardly  have  heard  my  bleatings  over  the  tele- 
phone, but  they  were  greatly  concerned  about 
something.  Shallenberger,  who  was  apparently 
the  only  one  willing  to  approach  me,  followed  me 
to  the  veranda. 

"Those  fellows  in  there  don't  understand  this. 
Dick  told  us  all  last  night,  after  we  had  called  at 
the  house  and  been  refused  admittance,  that 
Miss  Cecilia  was  ill  with  diphtheria.  I  remember 
that  it  was  Dick  who  rang  the  bell  and  gave  our 
cards  to  the  footman.  It  was  quite  singular,  you 
know,  our  being  turned  away,  unless  something 
had  been  wrong." 

I  bowed  gravely.  They  had  been  turned  away 
for  the  very  simple  reason  that,  after  unearth- 
ing Adoniram  Caldwell's  effects  in  the  secret 
rooms  of  her  house,  Miss  Octavia  had  not  cared 
to  be  troubled  with  suitors.  The  haughty  Ne- 
braskan  had  drawn  upon  his  imagination  for  the 
rest. 

"And  I  understood  you  to  say  a  moment  ago 
that  Miss  Hollister's  malady  is  not  diphtheria, 
but  chicken-pox?  "  Shallenberger  persisted  with 

381 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

almost  laughable  trepidation.  "These  gentle- 
men, I  regret  to  say,  go  so  far  as  to  doubt  your 
word." 

"That,  Mr.  Shallenberger,  is  their  privilege. 
But  it  seems  to  me  that  when  I  merely  tried  to 
mitigate  the  terrible  news  imparted  by  Dick, 
you  are  rank  ingrates  for  questioning  my  far  less 
doubtful  story.  Anything  between  you  gentle- 
men and  Mr.  Dick  is,  of  course,  none  of  my 
affair,  for  whether  considered  as  a  set,  group  or 
bunch  I  am  done  with  the  whole  lot  of  you. 
Farewell!" 

I  decided  as  I  rode  away  that  nothing  was 
to  be  gained  by  going  in  search  of  Wiggins. 
Orton  had  purposely  made  his  house  difficult  of 
access,  and  the  roads  in  that  neighborhood  are 
many  and  devious.  Orton  had  banished  his 
guests  that  he  might  tinker  his  play  in  peace,  and 
knowing  his  temper,  I  was  sure  that  Wiggins 
and  the  rest  of  them  would  keep  out  of  his  way 
till  the  pangs  of  hunger  drove  them  back. 

I  had  ridden  half  a  mile  toward  Hopefield, 
when  I  espied  a  woman  riding  rapidly  toward 
me,  and  as  she  drew  nearer  I  identified  her  as 
Hezekiah,  mounted  on  a  horse  I  recognized  as  one 
of  the  best  in  Miss  Octavia's  stables.  Hezekiah 
rode  astride,  as  a  woman  should,  her  bicycle 
skirt  serving  well  as  a  habit.  She  rode  as  a  boy 

382 


HEZEKIAH  PARTITIONS  THE  KINGDOM 

rides  who  loves  freedom  and  quickened  pulses 
and  the  rush  of  wind  across  his  face.  She  was 
hatless,  for  which  the  sun  and  I  were  both  grate- 


ful.  The  big  bow  at  the  back  of  her  head  turned 
the  dial  back  to  sixteen. 

She  drew  rein  and  fished  what  seemed  to  be 
salted  almonds  from  her  sweater  pocket.  She 
filliped  one  of  these  into  the  air,  and  caught  it  in 
her  mouth  with  a  lazy  toss  of  the  head  that 

383 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

She  indicated  a  high  point  in  the  main  road, 
where  it  crossed  the  ridge  from  which  she  had 
shown  me  —  it  seemed,  oh,  very  long  ago!  —  the 
procession  of  suitors  crossing  the  stile.  Dick, 
mounted,  was  gazing  off  across  the  fields  toward 
Hopefield.  Man  and  horse  were  so  distant  as  to 
create  the  illusion  of  an  equestrian  statue  on  a 
high  pedestal. 

"Napoleon  before  Waterloo,"  I  suggested. 

"He  does  look  like  Napoleon,  doesn't  he?" 
she  laughed.  "He's  a  bit  fussed  to-day.  He 
knows  that  Wiggy  's  not  at  the  inn,  and  that  you 
are  up  to  something,  and  to  little  Mr.  Dick  the 
architect  probably  looks  like  one  of  those  mys- 
terious knights  you  read  about,  who  suddenly 
appears  at  the  tournament  all  canned  in  an  ice- 
cream freezer,  with  a  tin  pail  over  his  head.  Mr. 
Pepperton's  presence  no  doubt  worries  him,  as 
I  don't  think  they  ever  met.  Cecilia  and  Mr. 
Pepperton  are  riding  —  I  dodged  them  just 
before  I  struck  you,  walking  their  horses  in  the 
most  loverlike  fashion  in  a  lane  over  yonder;  but 
if  Mr.  Pepperton  is  really  engaged  it 's  all  right, 
though  if  I  were  the  other  girl  I  think  I'd  be 
anxious." 

"Pep's  playing  the  game,  that's  all.  What 
are  you  going  to  do  now?" 

She  glanced  at  the  sun;  I  fancy  that  it  was 
386 


HEZEKIAH  PARTITIONS  THE  KINGDOM 

with  such  a  scanning  of  the  heavens  that  her 
sisters  a  thousand  years  before  had  noted  the 
time. 

"This  is  my  pie-day.  There's  undoubtedly  a 
gooseberry -pie  waiting  for  me  at  the  bungalow, 
and  papa  will  expect  me  for  luncheon.  I  'd  ask  you 
to  come  too,  only  you  '11  have  all  you  can  do  to 
keep  Mr.  Dick  from  persuading  somebody  to  be 
the  sixth  man,  so  he  can  slip  in  as  number  seven. 
If  we  get  through  to-day  all  right,  you  may  come 
for  luncheon  to-morrow,  maybe.  Papa  told  me 
he  liked  you;  he  said  you  were  very  decent  that 
night  you  met  him  on  the  roof  of  Aunt  Octavia's 
house." 

"My  compliments  to  your  father.  I  hope  to 
be  able  to  persuade  him  to  extend  his  paternal 
arm  to  include  me.  Aunt  Octavia  must  be  my 
aunt,  too!" 

"Really!"  cried  Hezekiah,  with  indescribable 
mockery;  and  she  wheeled  her  horse  and  was 
gone  like  the  wind. 

Luncheon  at  Hopefield  passed  without  inci- 
dent; and  afterward  Cecilia  retired  to  help  her 
aunt  with  her  correspondence,  while  Pepperton 
and  I  lounged  about  the  house  and  smoked.  I 
told  him  of  my  ineffectual  efforts  to  reach  Wig- 
gins, and  he  volunteered  to  find  a  motor  and 
search  for  him;  but  I  pointed  out  the  futility  of 

387 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

She  indicated  a  high  point  in  the  main  road, 
where  it  crossed  the  ridge  from  which  she  had 
shown  me  —  it  seemed,  oh,  very  long  ago!  —  the 
procession  of  suitors  crossing  the  stile.  Dick, 
mounted,  was  gazing  off  across  the  fields  toward 
Hopefield.  Man  and  horse  were  so  distant  as  to 
create  the  illusion  of  an  equestrian  statue  on  a 
high  pedestal. 

"Napoleon  before  Waterloo,"  I  suggested. 

"He  does  look  like  Napoleon,  doesn't  he?" 
she  laughed.  "He's  a  bit  fussed  to-day.  He 
knows  that  Wiggy  's  not  at  the  inn,  and  that  you 
are  up  to  something,  and  to  little  Mr.  Dick  the 
architect  probably  looks  like  one  of  those  mys- 
terious knights  you  read  about,  who  suddenly 
appears  at  the  tournament  all  canned  in  an  ice- 
cream freezer,  with  a  tin  pail  over  his  head.  Mr. 
Pepperton's  presence  no  doubt  worries  him,  as 
I  don't  think  they  ever  met.  Cecilia  and  Mr. 
Pepperton  are  riding  —  I  dodged  them  just 
before  I  struck  you,  walking  their  horses  in  the 
most  loverlike  fashion  in  a  lane  over  yonder;  but 
if  Mr.  Pepperton  is  really  engaged  it's  all  right, 
though  if  I  were  the  other  girl  I  think  I'd  be 
anxious." 

"Pep's  playing  the  game,  that's  all.  What 
are  you  going  to  do  now?" 

She  glanced  at  the  sun;  I  fancy  that  it  was 
386 


HEZEKIAH  PARTITIONS  THE  KINGDOM 

with  such  a  scanning  of  the  heavens  that  her 
sisters  a  thousand  years  before  had  noted  the 
time. 

"This  is  my  pie-day.  There's  undoubtedly  a 
gooseberry -pie  waiting  for  me  at  the  bungalow, 
and  papa  will  expect  me  for  luncheon.  I  'd  ask  you 
to  come  too,  only  you  '11  have  all  you  can  do  to 
keep  Mr.  Dick  from  persuading  somebody  to  be 
the  sixth  man,  so  he  can  slip  in  as  number  seven. 
If  we  get  through  to-day  all  right,  you  may  come 
for  luncheon  to-morrow,  maybe.  Papa  told  me 
he  liked  you;  he  said  you  were  very  decent  that 
night  you  met  him  on  the  roof  of  Aunt  Octavia's 
house." 

"My  compliments  to  your  father.  I  hope  to 
be  able  to  persuade  him  to  extend  his  paternal 
arm  to  include  me.  Aunt  Octavia  must  be  my 
aunt,  too!" 

"Really!"  cried  Hezekiah,  with  indescribable 
mockery;  and  she  wheeled  her  horse  and  was 
gone  like  the  wind. 

Luncheon  at  Hopefield  passed  without  inci- 
dent; and  afterward  Cecilia  retired  to  help  her 
aunt  with  her  correspondence,  while  Pepperton 
and  I  lounged  about  the  house  and  smoked.  I 
told  him  of  my  ineffectual  efforts  to  reach  Wig- 
gins, and  he  volunteered  to  find  a  motor  and 
search  for  him;  but  I  pointed  out  the  futility  of 

387 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

this,  and  renewed  my  appeal  that  he  stay  on 
guard  at  Hopefield. 

At  about  three  o'clock  Cecilia  reappeared. 
Her  color  was  high  and  her  eyes  were  unusually 
brilliant.  I  knew  that  she  fully  realized  that  the 
crisis  was  near,  but  she  asked  no  questions  and 
her  manner  reassured  me  of  her  confidence.  We 
idled  on  the  stone  terrace  above  the  frost  - 
smitten  garden,  which  in  its  ruin  still  satisfied 
the  eye  with  color.  I  had  purposely  drawn  some 
chairs  to  a  corner  well  screened  by  vines,  so  that 
I  could  note  the  approach  of  any  visitors  who 
came  cross  country  by  way  of  the  stile. 

We  were  hardly  seated  before  Dick  entered  the 
garden,  followed  immediately  by  the  six  other 
suitors  I  had  last  seen  at  the  inn.  They  ranged 
themselves  on  a  stone  bench  facing  the  house  at 
the  end  of  one  of  the  paths.  They  wore  sack 
coats  and  hats  in  a  variety  of  styles,  so  that 
they  did  not  present  quite  the  bizarre  effect  pro- 
duced by  their  frock  coats  and  silk  tiles.  They 
surveyed  the  house  sadly,  bowed  their  heads 
upon  their  sticks,  and  seemed  to  have  come  to 
stay.  The  siege,  then,  had  become  a  practical 
matter ! 

"Why  don't  the  gentlemen  come  in?"  asked 
Cecilia,  peering  through  the  vines. 

"Hush!  There's  a  rumor  that  you  are  terribly 
388 


HEZEKIAH  PARTITIONS  THE  KINGDOM 

ill;  they've  come  merely  to  pay  their  tribute  of 
respect  by  waiting  in  the  garden.  You  had  bet- 
ter go  quietly  into  the  house.  The  shock  of  seeing 
you  in  your  usual  health  might  be  too  much  for 
them." 

"But  I  can't!  I  must  be  accessible  at  all 
times,"  she  cried,  looking  helplessly  from  me 
to  Pepperton,  who  was  all  at  sea  for  an  expla- 
nation. "If  that  impression  is  abroad,  I  shall 
appear  at  once." 

"Then  you  and  Pepperton  must  patrol  the 
terrace  here;  you  are  lovers  for  all  I  know.  Ignore 
them  utterly  in  your  absorption  with  one  an- 
other. If  any  one  approaches  you,  Pepperton, 
ask  Miss  Hollister  to  marry  you." 

"Me!"  gasped  Pepperton. 

"No;  it  can't  be  done  that  way,"  Cecilia 
interposed.  "Mr.  Pepperton  has  told  me  of  his 
engagement.  I  can't  be  party  to  a  fraud,  a  trick. 
I  can't  countenance  it  at  all.  It  would  ruin 
everything!" 

"Then  stay  right  here;  pace  back  and  forth, 
and  I'll  manage  the  rest.  I  don't  for  the  life  of 
me  know  how,  but  I'll  do  it." 

As  Cecilia  and  Pepperton  stepped  from  behind 
the  screen  of  vines,  the  men  on  the  benches 
lifted  their  heads;  then  I  heard  murmurs  of 
amazement  and  chagrin,  and  caught  a  fleeting 

389 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

glimpse  of  Dick  tearing  through  the  hedge  with 
his  late  companions  tumbling  after  in  fierce 
pursuit. 

I  ran  to  the  stable  and  found  a  horse,  feeling 
that  I  must  be  in  a  position  to  move  rapidly  if 
I  saw  Wiggins  approaching.  If  Dick  eluded  his 
wrathful  pursuers  he  would  be  on  the  lookout 
somewhere,  awaiting  his  own  time,  and  if  he 
saw  Wiggins  rushing  madly  for  the  house,  he 
might  yet  circumvent  us. 

I  satisfied  myself  that  Cecilia  and  Pepperton 
were  still  plainly  visible  from  the  garden,  and  I 
knew  that  for  the  time  she  was  safe.  I  gained 
the  high  point  in  the  road  from  which  Heze- 
kiah  and  I  had  observed  Dick  on  guard  at  noon, 
and  waited.  Remembering  the  fine  figure  the 
philosopher  had  made  against  the  sky,  I  dis- 
mounted and  rested  by  a  stone  wall  where  I 
could  watch  with  less  risk  of  being  seen  from  a 
distance. 

I  at  once  saw  matters  that  interested  me  im- 
mensely. Dick  had  thrown  off  the  other  suitors, 
and  was  rapidly  crossing  the  fields  toward  Hope- 
field.  When  I  caught  sight  of  him,  he  was  just 
leaving  the  orchard  where  Hezekiah  and  I  had 
held  our  memorable  interview.  A  long  stretch 
of  rough  pasture  lay  before  him,  and  he  settled 
down  to  a  quick  trot.  He  took  several  fences 

390 


HEZEKIAH  PARTITIONS  THE  KINGDOM 

without  lessening  his  gait,  crossed  the  stile  like 
a  flash  a  little  later,  and  was  out  of  sight. 

As  I  turned  to  my  horse  I  heard  the  swift 
patter  of  hoofs,  and  saw  a  man  and  woman  gal- 
loping furiously  toward  me.  They  were  rapidly 
nearing  the  ridge,  and  their  horses  were  spring- 
ing over  the  firm  white  road  in  prodigious  leaps. 
Wiggins  had  got  my  message;  Hezekiah  had  met 
him  in  the  road  and  was  urging  him  on!  Here 
indeed  was  a  situation  to  stir  the  heart,  and  the 
blood  sang  in  my  ears  as  I  watched  them.  I 
waved  my  arm  as  they  checked  their  horses  for 
the  long  climb.  The  riders  had  lost  their  hats  in 
their  mad  race,  and  Wiggins's  horse  was  nearly 
done  for.  As  they  came  still  nearer,  I  saw  that 
Wiggins  had  taken  fire  at  last. 

"Orton  said  some  one  was  killed,  —  who — 
what  —  who"  — 

"I  just  picked  him  up  five  minutes  ago;  he 
doesn't  know  anything,"  said  Hezekiah;  "and 
you  dare  n't  tell  him  —  remember  the  rules ! 
What's  doing?"  she  inquired  coolly. 

She  bade  Wiggins  exchange  horses  with  her, 
and  while  he  was  readjusting  the  saddle-girths  I 
explained  to  Hezekiah  the  situation  at  Hopefield 
and  told  her  of  Dick's  scamper  across  the  fields. 

"There's  no  use  fooling  with  this  thing  any 
more.  I'll  take  Wiggy  to  the  house  and  lock 

391 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

him  up  until  I  've  been  numbered  six,  —  it 's 
safest." 

"Not  much  it  isn't.  I  don't  intend  that 
Cecilia  shall  have  the  pleasure  of  refusing  you." 

"I'd  like  to  know  why  not.  It's  only  to  fill 
the  gap." 

"Oh!"  said  Hezekiah,  "that  would  be  an  em- 
barrassment to  me  all  the  rest  of  my  life.  Listen 
carefully.  Take  Wiggy  in  by  the  back  way,  and 
give  him  a  picture-book  to  look  at.  Leave 
Cecilia  alone  on  the  terrace  when  you're  all 
ready,  and  see  what  happens.  If  Dick's  on  his 
way  to  the  house  he 's  going  to  do  something,  and 
he  must  feel  the  edge  of  my  displeasure.  I  owe 
him  a  few  on  general  principles." 

"What  does  all  this  mean?  You  say  there  's 
nothing  wrong  at  the  house?"  began  Wiggins 
as  we  left  Hezekiah  and  started  toward  Hope- 
field. 

"Nothing  whatever  the  matter;  everything 
perfectly  all  right;  but  you've  got  to  keep  mum 
now  and  do  what  I  tell  you.  I've  worked  hard 
for  you,  old  man,  and  when  it's  all  over  I'm 
going  to  send  you  a  bill  for  professional  services. 
Come!" 

I  urged  my  horse  to  his  utmost,  and  Wiggins 
rode  steadily  beside  me.  The  fright  Orton  had 
given  him  had  done  my  friend  good,  and  I  felt 

392 


HEZEKIAH  PARTITIONS  THE  KINGDOM 

that  I  was  dealing  with  a  live  man  at  last.  Our 
speed  did  not  permit  conversation,  but  feeling 
that  Wiggins  was  entitled  to  some  further  assur- 
ance, I  waited  until  we  were  climbing  our  last 
hill  to  add  a  word. 

"I'll  tell  you  all  about  this  after  we  have  a 
good-night  cigar  to-night.  You  know  I  told  you 
I  was  going  to  help,  and  if  nothing  goes  wrong 
and  Hezekiah  does  n't  fail,  you  will  see  the  world 
with  new  eyes  before  you  sleep." 

We  rode  direct  to  the  stable,  and  I  took  Wig- 
gins to  my  room  by  the  back  stairs  and  bade  him 
help  himself  to  my  raiment.  He  was  perfectly 
tractable,  and  I  was  glad  to  see  that  he  trusted 
implicitly  to  my  guidance. 

I  met  Miss  Octavia  in  the  lower  hall.  She  was 
just  in  from  the  kennels.  Her  new  Airedale  was  a 
perfect  specimen  of  the  breed,  she  declared,  and 
she  announced  her  intention  of  exhibiting  him  at 
all  the  reputable  bench  shows  in  America. 

"I  hope,  Arnold,  that  you  have  not  been 
without  entertainment  to-day." 

"Miss  Hollister,  the  three  musketeers  were 
fat  monks  asleep  under  the  sunny  wall  of  a 
monastery  compared  with  me!" 

"I  am  glad  you  are  not  bored.  By  the  way,  if 
you  should  by  any  chance  see  Hezekiah,  you  will 
kindly  intimate  to  her  that  if  she  returns  that 

393 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

Estabrook  mare  she  borrowed  this  morning  in 
reasonably  good  condition,  I  will  overlook  her 
indiscretion  in  taking  it  from  the  stable  without 
permission." 

She  did  not  wait  for  a  reply,  but  continued  on 
to  her  room,  and  I  went  direct  to  the  terrace. 
Cecilia  and  Pepperton  were  just  going  into  the 
house  to  look  up  a  book  or  piece  of  music  which 
they  had  been  discussing.  Cecilia  was  making 
herself  interesting,  as  she  so  well  knew  how  to 
do,  and  she  seemed  in  no  wise  anxious. 

"We  had  forgotten  tea,"  she  said.  "Aunt 
Octavia  has  just  ordered  it." 

"She  and  Mr.  Pepperton  may  have  their  tea. 
I  believe  the  air  outside  will  do  you  good  for  a 
little  longer,  —  so  if  you  don't  mind,  Pepperton, 
Miss  Hollister  will  resume  her  promenade  alone." 

Pep  has  told  me  since  that  he  thought  me 
quite  mad  that  afternoon.  I  bade  Cecilia  patrol 
the  long  terrace  slowly.  She  turned  up  the  col- 
lar of  the  covert  coat  and  obeyed,  laughing  a 
little  nervously  but  asking  no  questions.  The 
scene  could  not  have  been  more  charmingly  set. 
The  great  house  loomed  darkly  behind  her;  be- 
neath lay  the  garden,  over  which  the  dusk  was 
stealing  goldenly. 

She  paused  suddenly  as  I  watched  from  the 
window,  and  I  stepped  out  to  see  what  had 

394 


HEZEKIAH  PARTITIONS  THE  KINGDOM 

attracted  her  attention.  There  into  the  garden 
from  its  farther  entrance  filed  the  six  suitors 
who  had  previously  come  to  sit  beneath  the  win- 
dows of  their  stricken  lady!  Having  failed  to 
visit  their  wrath  upon  the  perfidious  Dick  they 
had  changed  their  clothes  and  returned  to  Hope- 
field.  If  Hezekiah  had  not  expressly  commanded 
me  not  to  become  the  sixth  man,  I  should  have 
offered  myself  on  the  spot,  and  waited  only  until 
Cecilia  had  made  the  inevitable  answer  before 
summoning  Wiggins  to  end  the  whole  affair. 
Such,  however,  was  not  to  be  the  order  of 
events. 

The  procession,  headed  by  Oraisby,  was 
within  a  few  yards  of  the  terrace.  Cecilia,  ap- 
parently unconscious  of  their  proximity,  con- 
tinued her  promenade.  In  a  moment  she  must 
recognize  them,  ask  them  into  the  house,  give 
them  tea,  and  otherwise  destroy  my  hope  of 
securing  her  happiness  before  the  day's  end. 

A  chorus  of  yelps  and  barks,  as  of  dogs  sud- 
denly released,  greeted  my  ear.  The  oncoming 
suitors  heard  it  too,  and  the  line  wobbled  un- 
certainly. Then  round  the  house  swept  mastiffs, 
hounds,  terriers,  —  a  collection  of  prize-winners 
such  as  few  kennels  ever  boasted,  loping  gayly 
in  unwonted  freedom  toward  unknown  and  for- 
bidden pastures. 

395 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

The  vanguard  of  fox-terriers  leaped  down  into 
the  garden,  with  the  rest  of  the  pack  at  their 
heels.  Happy  dogs,  to  find  grown  men  ready  for 
a  gambol !  Six  coat-tails  streamed  from  the  hips 
of  six  gentlemen  in  a  hurry.  Several  battered 
hats  mixed  with  geraniums  were  retained  later 
as  spoils  of  war  by  the  gardener.  That  garden 
had  been  built  for  repose  and  contemplative 
amblings,  not  for  panic  and  flight.  The  disorder 
was  superior  in  picturesqueness  to  that  which 
a'ttended  the  pumpkin  stampede;  at  least  it 
struck  me  at  the  moment  as  funnier;  and  I  have 
never  since  been  able  to  attend  a  day  wedding 
without  appearing  idiotic  —  the  procession  of 
ushers  suggests  possibilities  that  are  too  much 
for  me.  Four  of  the  suitors  found  one  of  the 
proper  exits  into  the  road;  two  leaped  the  box- 
hedge  on  the  other  side  without  shaking  a  leaf. 

I  ran  round  the  house,  stumbling  through  the 
rear-guard  of  the  truant  canines,  and  passing  the 
kennel-master,  who  had  rallied  the  stable  men 
and  was  in  hot  pursuit. 

"Somebody  turned  'em  out  —  turned  'em 
out!"  he  shouted,  and  swept  profanely  by.  The 
gate  of  the  kennel-yard  stood  open.  A  familiar 
figure,  running  low,  paused,  and  then  sprinted 
nimbly  along  the  paddock  fence.  A  white 
sweater  was  distinguishable  for  a  moment  on  a 

396 


HEZEKIAH  PARTITIONS  THE  KINGDOM 

stone  wall,  then  it  followed  a  pair  of  enchanted 
heels  into  oblivion. 

Time  had  been  passing  swiftly,  and  the 
shadows  were  deepening.  I  retraced  my  steps 
toward  the  terrace,  hearing  the  cries  of  pursued 
and  pursuers  growing  fainter.  I  had  not  yet 
gained  a  position  from  which  I  could  see  Cecilia, 
when  a  man  appeared  some  distance  ahead  of 
me,  walking  guardedly  in  one. of  the  garden- 
plots.  He  came  uncertainly,  pausing  to  glance 
about,  yet  evidently  led  toward  the  terrace  by  a 
definite  purpose.  All  may  be  fair  in  love  and  war, 
but  I  confess  to  a  feeling  of  pity  for  John  Stewart 
Dick  as  I  watched  him  slowly  advancing  to  his 
fate.  He  was  going  boldly  now,  and  I  felt  a  sud- 
den liking  for  him ;  nor  can  I  believe  that  he  was 
other  than  a  manly  fellow  with  sound  brains  and 
a  good  heart. 

I  reasoned,  as  I  marked  his  approach  to  the 
terrace,  that  he  had  been  loitering  in  the  neigh- 
borhood, probably  watching  Cecilia  and  Pepper- 
ton,  and  when  the  architect  retired,  he  had 
assumed  that  the  sixth  man  had  spoken.  The 
appearance  of  his  former  comrades  of  the  inn 
had  doubtless  disturbed  him  as  it  had  me;  then, 
thanks  to  the  resourceful  Hezekiah,  they  had 
been  routed  and  the  coast  was  clear.  I  think 
it  likely  that  the  sight  of  Cecilia  sombrely 

397 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

pacing  the  terrace  in  the  darkening  shadows  was 
too  much  for  his  philosophic  poise,  or  like  the  rest 
of  us  who  were  actors  in  that  comedy,  he  may 
have  felt  that  any  end  was  better  than  the 
doubts  and  uncertainties  that  beset  us. 

I  watched  him  draw  nearer  to  Cecilia  as  I  have 
watched  deer  go  down  to  a  lake  to  drink.  He 
would  speak  now;  I  was  confident  of  it;  and  I 
stole  round  to  the  side  entrance  and  sent  word 
to  Wiggins  to  go  to  the  drawing-room  and  wait 
for  me. 

Miss  Octavia  and  Pepperton  still  lingered  over 
their  tea-cups.  The  row  made  by  the  fugitives 
from  her  kennels  had  not,  it  seemed,  penetrated 
to  the  library,  and  Miss  Octavia  bade  me  join 
the  talk,  which  had  to  do,  I  remember,  with 
some  project  for  a  national  hall  of  fame  that  had 
incurred  her  characteristic  displeasure.  A  hall 
of  immortal  rascals  in  pillories  she  thought  far 
likelier  to  please  the  masses. 

In  fifteen  minutes  I  saw  Cecilia  crossing  the 
hall.  She  stopped  where  I  could  see  her  quite 
plainly,  and  thrust  her  hand  into  the  pocket 
of  her  coat.  Out  flashed  the  silver  note-book. 
She  made  a  swift  notation  with  the  pencil 
that  now,  I  knew,  wrote  the  fate  of  the  sixth 
man. 

I  went  out  and  spoke  to  her,  and  walked  beside 
398 


HEZEKIAH  PARTITIONS  THE  KINGDOM 

her  to  the  drawing-room  door,  where  Hartley 
Wiggins  was  waiting. 

Miss  Octavia  had  risen  when  I  returned  to  the 
library,  and  it  was  time  to  dress  for  dinner. 

"Just  a  moment,  Miss  Hollister.  Something 
of  great  interest  is  about  to  occur;"  and  I  made 
excuses  for  detaining  her  for  perhaps  five  min- 
utes, —  not  more. 

"You  have  never  yet  deceived  me,  Arnold 
Ames,  and  such  is  my  confidence  in  you  that  if 
you  tell  me  that  something  interesting  will  soon 
occur,  I  have  no  reason  to  doubt  you.  It  is  worth 
remembering,  however,  that  fowl  is  not  improved 
by  prolonged  roasting." 

I  heard  Wiggins  laugh  in  the  hall,  and  Miss 
Octavia  raised  her  head.  Then  Cecilia  came  into 
the  room,  and  walked  directly  to  her  aunt. 

"Aunt  Octavia,  here  is  the  little  silver  note- 
book you  gave  me  in  Paris;  I  have  just  written 
Mr.  Wiggins's  name  in  it,  •  and  as  I  have  no 
further  use  for  the  book,  I  return  it  with  my 
love  and  thanks." 

Without  a  word,  Miss  Octavia  turned  to  the 
wall  and  pressed  the  button  twice. 

"William,"  she  said  as  the  butler  appeared, 
"you  may  serve  Oriana  '97,  and  be  careful  not 
to  freeze  it  to  death;  and  the  hour  for  dinner  is 
changed  to  eight.  Arnold,  you  may  yourself 

399 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUITORS 

drive  to  Gooseberry  Bungalow  for  my  brother 
and  niece.  They  dine  with  me  to-night." 

Hezekiah  and  I  built  our  bungalow  in  the 
orchard  where  on  that  October  afternoon  I  found 
her  munching  a  red  apple  on  the  stone  wall.  She 
is  the  -most  scrupulous  of  housewives,  and  only 
now  took  me  to  task  for  scattering  the  hearth 
with  fragments  of  the  notes  from  which  this  nar- 
rative has  been  written.  She  has  just  been  read- 
ing these  last  pages,  with  meditative  brown  eyes, 
and  not  without  occasionally  reaching  for  the 
pen  and  retouching  some  sentence  in  which,  she 
says,  soot  from  my  chimney -doctoring  days  has 
clogged  the  ink.  Cecilia  and  Wiggins  live  at 
Hopefield  across  the  fields.  Miss  Octavia  in- 
sisted on  this,  for  the  reason  that  the  sword  of 
Hartley's  great-grandfather,  found  in  the  chest 
under  the  old  house,  gives  him  inalienable  rights 
to  the  premises.  Miss  Octavia  and  her  brother 
Bassford  are  traveling  abroad  and  enjoying  those 
mild  adventures  to  which  they  are  both  tempera- 
mentally inclined.  As  Miss  Octavia  carried  with 
her  the  Parker  House  umbrella-check  I  am  con- 
fident of  her  early  return. 

My  name  is  joined  to  Pepperton's  on  his 
office-door.  Pepperton  proposed  this  arrange- 
ment, with  so  many  assurances  of  faith  in  me 

400 


HEZEKIAH  PARTITIONS  THE  KINGDOM 

that  I  could  not  refuse  him;  but  I  knew  well 
enough  that  Miss  Octavia  had  first  put  it  into 
his  head.  So  while  I  have  called  myself  a  chim- 
ney-doctor in  these  pages,  I  am  again  an  archi- 
tect, and  the  new  cathedral  now  rising  at  Waxa- 
haxie  is,  let  me  modestly  note,  the  work  of  my 
hand. 

"You  ought  to  say  something  more  about  the 
Asolando,"  Hezekiah  has  just  murmured  at  my 
shoulder.  "Everybody  will  ask  whether  we  ever 
went  back  there." 

"Of  course  we  go  back  there,  Hezekiah,  every 
time  you  come  to  town  and  can  get  hold  of  me. 
Will  that  be  enough?" 

:<  You'd  better  explain  that  Aunt  Octavia 
started  the  tea-room  and  still  owns  it,  and  makes 
money  out  of  it,  though  she  rarely  goes  there, 
but  sends  Freda  the  maid  to  collect  the  profits. 
And  it  won't  do  any  harm  to  say  that  when  she 
met  you  there  that  day,  she  decided  at  once  that 
you  would  be  a  proper  husband  for  me.  Any  one 
who  reads  your  book  will  want  to  know  that." 

Hezekiah  is  always  right;  so  here  endeth  the 
chronicle. 


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